While Apple barely mentioned its smart home platform during its WWDC 2024 keynote this week, Apple Home users can still rejoice in an update spotted in the first beta of iOS 18: You’ll get the ability to select a “preferred home hub.” This fixes the problem of your smart home “deciding” to run on Wi-Fi through a HomePod, even though there’s a perfectly functional Apple TV with Ethernet right next to it.
Attentive Reddit users on the HomeKit subreddit have discovered that there is a new option in the iOS 18 beta that allows you to choose your preferred home hub instead of relying on Apple’s automatic selection, the current option.
HomeKit users expressed their joy at the move in the thread, saying things like, “This is the most important feature update in Homekit history,” “This is the best news I’ve ever had,” and “I can’t believe it! Apple actually listened!!!”
This allows users to run their Apple Home automations through a hardwired Apple TV as their main home hub, rather than a Wi-Fi-based HomePod, which is generally considered faster and more reliable by users.
An Apple Home Hub such as a HomePod or Apple TV offers the ability to create automations, remotely control devices, and enable local processing for HomeKit secure video cameras on Apple’s smart home platform.
If you only have one Home Hub, this change won’t affect you. However, for people with large Apple Home setups and multiple hubs, the inability to choose which hub the system relies on has caused frustration over the years.
While Apple will tell you it chooses the best hub for the task at hand, Reddit users will tell you that’s not the case.
While Apple will tell you it chooses the best hub for the job, Reddit users will tell you that’s not the case. When Apple Home defaults to an older model or one with Wi-Fi, some users report slowdowns in automation and overall lower reliability of their smart homes.
I regularly have Apple Home running on a HomePod Mini in the far corner of my house rather than my hardwired Apple TV in my living room. And when that’s the case, my automations run noticeably slower and I often can’t access my HomeKit cameras.
Before this change, the only way to force Apple Home to use a specific hub was to unplug all other hubs. Even then, the system would often revert to its original configuration once reconnected. And while you can disable Home Hub functionality on an Apple TV, you can’t do that on a HomePod.
But with iOS 18, Apple Home users are finally getting the control many have been demanding. If you don’t want to wait until Apple releases iOS 18 in the fall, you can download the developer betas now. A word of warning: For this to work, you’ll need to install it on all of your home hubs, and that’s probably not a good idea if you want a smoothly functioning smart home.