Smart home platforms have plenty of powerful features for automating every device in your home, but you have to do some upfront work to make it happen. You also have to know what you’re looking for. Here are the hidden tips and tricks to maximize everything connected via Apple Home.
Enable Critical Alerts to break through your Do Not Disturb modes
Apple’s critical alerts feature allows a limited number of emergency notifications to break through Silent and Do Not Disturb modes so you know immediately if there’s a safety or security risk threatening life or property. Specific sensors can trigger these alerts, such as smoke, carbon monoxide, and leak detectors and security system devices that have a “panic” mode. When enabled, these alerts will appear on your lock screen and play a sound even if your device is on silent. Go to Settings > Notifications > Home and ensure the Critical Alerts toggle is on. You may need to configure critical alert permissions in the device’s app as well.
For other types of notifications that don’t qualify as critical—but that you want to break through, such as person detection on your cameras—you can customize your Focus modes.
Customize which frequently used scenes are pinned to your Control Center
When you open your Control Center on iOS (swipe down from the top-right corner of your device), you’ll likely see at least one Home scene or accessory pinned to the Favorites screen, giving you one-tap access to the automation or device without having to open the Home app. Apple does a pretty decent job of selecting frequently used scenes to pin here, but you can also customize the ones you want most. From the Control Center, long-press and tap the Home control. Toggle off Use Recommended and choose Add New Item to select from your Apple Home scenes and accessories. You can also tap Add a Control to pin additional automations on the Home-specific Control Center screen.
Break device sensors into multiple tiles to build more targeted automations
Some smart home devices, like thermostats and motion detectors, actually contain multiple sensors, but they’re all bundled together under the main device tile. When you split them into separate tiles, you can view and manage them as though they were independent devices. This can be useful if you want your smart shades to open or close based on ambient light levels or enable a fan or space heater (via a smart plug) based on the temperature in your bedroom as detected by a motion sensor. Long-press on the device and tap Accessory Settings. If multiple sensors are available, you’ll see the option to Show as Separate Tiles. (Even if you don’t separate the tiles, you should be able to choose the individual sensors from the device list when building an automation that uses a sensor.)
Enable built-in countdown timers to deactivate devices
If you use motion, contact, or presence sensors to turn on lights, you can program those same lights to turn off after a set amount of time within the same automation—even if the sensor is still activated. This way, no one needs to worry about forgetting to turn off lights, and you don’t need a separate automation to run the behavior.
In the Home app, tap the plus sign > Add Automation > A Sensor Detects Something. Then select the sensor and select Opens > Next. On the following screen, select the device you want to turn on and tap Next. Make sure the tile for the device is set to On. At the bottom of the screen, tap Turn Off and select your desired timeout. Then tap Done.
Use Shortcuts to create weather-based automations
Beyond automating your smart home devices to do certain things at specific times of day, you can set up a shortcut that responds to local weather conditions and behaves differently if, for example, it’s sunny or cloudy at your house. One specific application is lowering your smart shades in the afternoon if it’s sunny by keeping them open if it’s cloudy or raining—or you could set them based on outdoor temperature if you want solar heat during the winter.
To set this up in the Home app, tap the plus sign > Add Automation > A Time of Day Occurs and set the time that your room gets the most sun. Tap Next. On the following screen, scroll down and hit Convert to Shortcut. Clear the default action, enter Weather in the search bar, and select Get Current Weather. Type If in the search bar and select the If block. Tap Weather Conditions in the first block and change the type to Condition. (If you want to do a temperature-based automation, change the type to Temperature instead.) Tap the next field, change to Contains, and type Sunny in the text block. Search for Home, select Control Home, and drag this to just beneath the If block. Tap Scenes and Accessories to select your smart home device and its action, then tap Next > Done to save it.
Program smart bulbs to act as silent intercoms
Another creative use of Shortcuts: Set your smart bulbs to flash off and on to get family members’ attention instead of yelling across the house. For example, you could use the pattern as a silent dinner bell. Tap the plus sign > Add Automation > An Accessory is Controlled (for a smart switch or light) or A Sensor Detects Something (such as motion in the kitchen) > Next. Scroll down and hit Convert to Shortcut. Clear the default action, enter Home in the search bar, and select Control Home. Tap Scenes and Accessories to select your target light bulb, and set it to Off. Type Wait in the search bar and select the Wait block, and set the time to 1 second. Repeat, but choose On as the action. Add one more Off and one more On to the sequence, then tap Next > Done.
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