Apple today released iOS 18.3 beta 1 to developers, five days after releasing iOS 18.2 to the general public. One of the changes in the new update is support for a key new category of devices in the Home app.
New device category coming with iOS 18.3
Back at WWDC in June, Apple announced that support for robot vacuums was coming to the Home app in iOS 18.
Robot vacuums weren't included in the initial release of iOS 18 in September, but they were still planned for iOS 18.2 for a while.
Apple's website until recently said the new feature was coming “later this year.”
That release window was quietly updated earlier this month to instead indicate a delay. Now it says “Coming in an update”.
As Aaron Parris discovered in X, iOS 18.3 will add support for this pending feature. A whole bunch of new code was added in iOS 18.3 beta 1 to enable the new category of devices.
Here's what the Home app support means for robot vacuums, from Apple's site:
The Home app now supports basic robot vacuum features like power management, cleaning mode, vacuum, mop, and charge status. They can also participate in automations and scenes and respond to Siri requests. So you can add them to your cleaning routines — or ask Siri to do a spot clean in the living room.
iOS 18.3 is still in early beta, so it’s possible that robot vacuum support will be removed before the update is generally available. Still, its appearance in the beta 1 code is a good sign, and it matches the expected timeline based on a feature that narrowly missed its initial launch in iOS 18.2.
Hopefully, when iOS 18.3 officially launches early next year, Apple will have good news about device makers supporting HomeKit in their robot vacuums.
Are you excited to add your robot vacuum device to the Home app? Let us know in the comments.
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