Home 3

Apple continues to improve HomeKit and introduces new automation features and accessory types in iOS 11. Home 3 adds support for the new HomeKit features and contains overall improvements. It’s a free update for all users.

Automation

In iOS 10, Apple introduced its own Home app. The app offered automation features, which were not publicly available in the HomeKit SDK. Some of those features are now available in iOS 11 for third-party apps. You can now create triggers, which execute actions on sunrise or sunset. Also there are new trigger conditions to only execute actions on specific weekdays or based on the presence of people at home. For example, the light should only turn off, if nobody is at home.

Take a look at our automation guide to learn more about HomeKit automation in iOS 11.

User Interface

Home 3 has a refined user interface with new icons and bolder text styles. The app icon was slightly updated as well.

If you’re using Larger Accessibility Sizes in iOS, you will appreciate the new user interface layout. It makes the app much more usable on large text sizes.

The new Smart Invert Colours accessibility feature is supported as well, giving you the option to use the app in a dark theme. You can enable it in iOS Settings → General → Accessibility → Display Accommodations → Invert Colours → Smart Invert.

Find more information about the new version in the release notes or on the App Store.