With iOS 18 currently in the third beta and set to become available to everyone this fall, we've had plenty of time to see just what's new with smart home management, including Apple Home and HomeKit-compatible devices. It turns out Apple Home is getting several key updates that are going to affect how Apple users manage home security (and use their robot vacuums).
There's more Matter support than ever, Apple is adding big bonuses. And a few new tricks with smart lights could make a big difference in how you run your home -- or let it run itself. Here's what caught our attention.
The Home app is getting new interactions in iOS 18, and it's good news for your smart home.
Pick a smart home hub near your most important devices
To work with Apple HomeKit and the Home app, especially with the latest Matter integrations, your smart home devices need a central hub to channel communication through. It has to be a specific Apple device, like a HomePod or a newer version of Apple TV, and previously Apple would automatically find and connect to one for you.
With iOS 18 comes a way to choose which hub your smart home connects through, and that's a lot more important than it may look at first glance. Previously, automatically chosen hubs could have trouble connecting to more distant devices. That affected smart home security more than anything else, since Apple TVs buried in cabinets or other hard-to-reach places had the most difficulty connecting to farther-away devices like smart locks, video doorbells, outdoor security cameras and smart garage doors.
Now when choosing your own Apple home hub device, you can position a hub so it easily connects to your outdoor devices and stops dropping security devices or other smart home tech at inconvenient times.
iPhone showing guest access options for smart devices.
Control guest access with new home security tools
Big news for anyone who runs their security system or smart lock through the Apple Home app: You now have a suite of guest access controls. These access tools allow you to create guest permissions for specific devices, like your front door smart lock, your garage door or for disarming your security system. You can either share this access via Home Key technology, or create independent schedules that only allow guest access at certain times of the day.
While the new features are nice if you have guests staying over, this kind of access control also promises a lot for families with active kids, landlords with tenants, Airbnb hosts and other situations where customization is handy.
Choose specific smart home devices for your Control Center
Previously, Apple would assign some smart home devices to your iPhone Control Center, but users didn't have much control over which devices would show up there. iOS 18 brings a welcome change, now allowing smart home users to choose exactly what devices they want to access via the Control Center.
I especially like this choice for the aforementioned security devices like garage doors and home security systems you want to disarm, as well as smart locks if you don't want to use Home Keys or geolocation controls. It's an easier option than tapping your way through the Home app, and gives the Control Center a layer of smart home usefulness it should have already had.
New Control Center customization shown in iOS 18.
Enable more smart bulbs with adaptive lighting
As sharp-eyed beta testers on Reddit and elsewhere quickly noticed, Apple has also started adding adaptive lighting support for Matter-compatible smart lights, notably Nanoleaf bulbs with others expected. That means you can set these lights to naturally change their color temperature throughout the day, moving between warmer and cooler shades to enhance visibility and reduce eye strain.
While it's not as big for home security as other new features, many Apple Home users also control their smart lights through the app, so the added functionality is welcome. I especially look forward to it coming to security cameras with floodlights, which can be a little too bright at night for some, unless you do a lot of settings work.
Remember, many people can install the beta right now and start exploring these feature, but the release will be much more stable and less likely to run into any bugs. For a complete look at the smart home for Apple users, stop by the best security cameras for Apple HomeKit, our favorite HomeKit devices in general and top DIY security systems.