Home

When you first start using the Home app, a setup assistant helps you create a home. You can then add accessories, control them remotely, share access to your home devices with others, and more.

You can add compatible accessories throughout your home, like locks, lights, cameras, and thermostats. With a home hub, you can share full resident access with family and friends, or limited guest access with pet-sitters and other temporary visitors. And with a participating utility provider, you can view how much electricity your home uses.

Add accessories

You can add compatible accessories throughout your home—such as locks, lights, cameras, and thermostats. Tap the Add button in the top right, tap Add Accessory, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Allow guest access

With a home hub—you can share full resident access to your Home app devices with family and friends, or limited guest access to pet-sitters, service workers, or other temporary visitors. Tap the Add button, tap Add People, then choose Resident or Guest. Enter your recipient, then tap Send Invite.

Monitor your energy usage

If you have a participating residential utility provider, you can view how much electricity your home uses, track your usage over time, and view your electricity rate plan information. To add a provider, tap the More button, tap Home Settings, tap Energy, then tap Connect Account.

These guides go deeper into setting up and controlling your home:

• Set up accessories with Home on iPad
• Invite others to control accessories in your home
• View electricity usage and rates on iPad (participating U.S. providers only)
• Set up security cameras in Home on iPad
• Control accessories with Home on iPad

You can view electricity usage and rates on iPad with participating U.S. providers only. You can set up electricity usage and rate information, set up electricity usage and rate for multiple utility accounts, and disconnect your account from electricity usage and rate information.

You can get insight into your home electricity usage and electricity rate information by connecting your utility account to the Home app. This allows you to:

• View your home electricity usage over time and see how it’s trending.
• View how much electricity you used during cleaner and less clean periods, and find opportunities to shift your usage to help the environment.
• Learn more about your electricity rate plan, and if you’re on a time-of-use (TOU) plan, see if it’s currently a peak or off-peak time to help you decide when to use electricity, and see how much electricity you used during lower- and higher-cost periods.
• If you have rooftop solar, know when you used electricity from the grid and when you had a surplus and sent it back, as well as how your imports and exports varied across different rate periods and during cleaner and less clean times.

Electricity usage data is typically displayed with a lag of 24 to 72 hours.

Note: To use these features, you need to have a residential electrical service with a participating utility provider, and you must be the utility account owner or authorized user of the utility account.

Set up electricity usage and rate information

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Home tab and tap the More button. Then tap Home Settings.
3. Tap Energy and tap Connect Account.

   Note: Participating utility providers are listed under Available Providers. If your utility provider isn’t listed, this feature isn’t currently supported in your area.

4. Follow the onscreen instructions to link your compatible electricity account.

Set up electricity usage and rate for multiple utility accounts

You can add multiple utility accounts or providers to the Home app by creating an additional home.

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Home tab, tap the add button, tap Add New Home, and then tap Save.
3. From the Home tab, tap the More button. Tap Home Settings.
4. Tap Energy and tap Connect Account.

   Note: Participating utility providers are listed under Available Providers. If your utility provider isn’t listed, this feature isn’t currently supported in your area.

5. Follow the onscreen instructions to link your additional compatible electricity account.

Disconnect your account from electricity usage and rate information

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Home tab and tap the More button. Then tap Home Settings.
3. Tap Energy and tap your linked electricity account.
4. Tap Disconnect Account.

See also

• Use Grid Forecast to plan energy use in Home on iPad (U.S. only)

The electricity powering your home comes from different sources, which can include renewable energy, like solar and wind, or fossil fuels, like coal and natural gas, and those sources can change throughout the day. In the Home app on your iPad, you can see a forecast for your area that highlights cleaner times, which can help reduce carbon emissions, and less clean times, to help you choose when to use electricity.

To view the Grid Forecast, you must be connected to the internet, with Location Services turned on for the Home app. You can also get notified when cleaner energy is powering your home.

Note: Grid Forecast is available only in the contiguous United States; it’s not available in Alaska or Hawaii.

Show Grid Forecast

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Home tab.
3. Tap the Energy category to show the Grid Forecast widget.

   Green bars in the widget indicate when cleaner energy is available in your area—from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m., for example. If there are no bars, cleaner energy isn’t forecast for the near future.

When you’re traveling, Grid Forecast gives you energy information for both your home location and your iPad’s location.

Note: Until you add accessories to your home, you’ll see the Grid Forecast widget when you open the Home app.

Receive Grid Forecast notifications

To receive notifications when the electricity powering your home is being generated by cleaner or more renewable sources of energy, tap the Notifications button in the Grid Forecast widget in the Home app, then tap Notify Me.

Turn off Grid Forecast

Open Home Settings, tap Energy, then turn off Show Grid Forecast.

See also

• View electricity usage and rates on iPad (participating U.S. providers only)

In the Home app on your iPad, you can add more homes when you have more than one physical space—a home and a small office, for example. You just name the home, choose its wallpaper, then save it. And once you’ve added more homes, you can switch to another home whenever you want.

1. Go to the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Add button and then tap Add New Home.
3. Name the home, choose its wallpaper, then tap Save.
4. To switch to another home, tap the More button and tap the home you want.

See also

• Set up accessories with Home on iPad

Using the Home app and your compatible Matter thermostat, you can turn on automatic adjustments for comfort and cleaner energy guidance.

Adaptive Temperature uses settings and temperature ranges for your At Home, Night, Away, and Extended Away states, and with compatible occupancy sensors, it can adjust the temperature based on room occupancy. It can even predict arrivals. With Clean Energy Guidance, Home makes small thermostat adjustments to help reduce electricity usage while energy sources are less clean.

Adaptive Temperature

1. Start the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Home tab, tap your thermostat, tap the Settings button, and tap Adaptive Temperature.
3. Turn on Adaptive Temperature. Choose your settings and temperature range for your At Home, Night, Away, and Extended Away states.
4. Turn on any of the following:
   • Switch Thermostat Modes: When enabled, your thermostat will switch between Heat, Cool, Auto, and Off based on your temperature preferences. When disabled, your thermostat will stay in its current mode.
   • Occupancy Detection: With compatible occupancy sensors, Adaptive Temperature can adjust the temperature based on room occupancy.
   • Predict Arrival: Use daily routines, Apple Maps, Calendar, and more to predict arrivals and automatically precondition to your chosen At Home temperature range.
   • Activity History: Adaptive Temperature changes are logged to Activity History.

Turn off Adaptive Temperature

1. Start the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Home tab, tap your thermostat, tap the Settings button, and tap Adaptive Temperature.
3. Turn off Adaptive Temperature.

Clean Energy Guidance

When energy sources are less clean, Home can make small adjustments to the thermostat to help reduce electricity usage.

1. Start the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Home tab and tap your thermostat. Then tap the Settings button.
3. Turn on Optimize for Clean Energy.

Turn off Clean Energy Guidance

1. Start the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the Home tab and tap your thermostat. Then tap the Settings button.
3. Turn off Optimize for Clean Energy.

See also

• Set up HomePod in Home on iPad

Use the Home app and Control Center to control accessories in your home.

The available controls depend on the type of accessory you have. With some lightbulbs, for example, you can change colors, and with your smart TV, you can choose an input source. You can also add Home scenes and accessories to Control Center, and see accessories in categories like Lights, Climate, and Security, organized by room.

Here’s how to control accessories with Home on iPad.

Control accessories in the Home app

On the Home tab, tap an accessory’s icon on the left side of the tile—a light, for example—to quickly turn the accessory on or off. Tap the accessory’s name on the right side of the tile to show the accessory’s control.

The controls you’ll see depend on the type of accessory. Some lightbulbs have controls for changing colors, for example, while a smart TV lets you choose an input source.

Add accessories to Control Center

For easy access to your most used accessories, add Home scenes and accessories to Control Center.

1. Open Control Center on your iPad.
2. Tap the Add button in the top left. Tap Add a Control at the bottom.
3. Tap the Home Scene or Accessory control.
4. Tap Choose Scene or Accessory. Select a home and device or scene you want to control.

View categories and home status

With the Lights, Climate, Security, Speakers and TV, and Water categories, you can quickly get to all the relevant accessories, organized by room.

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.

   Below your home’s name, buttons show the status of accessories belonging to a category—for example, a Lights category that shows “3 on.”

2. Tap one of the category buttons at the top of the screen or in the sidebar to show all accessories within that category, organized by room.
3. While viewing a category, tap the icon on the left side of an accessory tile to perform an action—turn a light or group of lights on or off, start playing music on a HomePod, or lock the front door.

View Activity History

If you have a home hub running the latest software, everyone in your home except guests can see the activity history for accessories like locks, garage doors, security systems, and adaptive temperature thermostats. That way, you can find out when a door was unlocked and who unlocked it.

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the More button, then tap Home Settings.
3. Go to Activity and tap One Month to view up to 30 days of activity.
4. On the Home screen, tap the Security or Climate category. Then tap Home Activity to show the Activity History.

Turn Activity History on and off

Only the home owner, or a shared home user allowed to add and edit accessories, can switch Activity History on and off. Turning it off permanently erases all previous activity for the home.

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. On the Home tab, tap the More button, tap Home Settings, and tap Activity.
3. Choose One Month to turn Activity History on, or choose Off.

Turn on Adaptive Lighting

Some Apple Home-compatible lights let you adjust their color temperature, from cool blue to warm yellow. You can set supported lights to automatically adjust the color temperature throughout the day. Wake up to warm colors, stay alert and focused mid-day with cooler ones, and wind down at night by removing blue light. For a light that supports Adaptive Lighting, follow these steps:

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the light’s tile to show the controls.

   You can also touch and hold the tile, then choose Accessory Settings.

3. Tap the Adaptive Lighting button. Turn on Adaptive Lighting.

Note: Adaptive Lighting needs a home hub, which is a device such as Apple TV 4K or HomePod speakers.

Edit home accessories

To edit accessory settings, tap the right side of an accessory tile, tap the Settings button, then do any of the following:

• Rename an accessory: Tap the Delete button to delete the old name, then type a new one.
• Change an accessory’s icon: Tap the icon next to the accessory’s name, then select a new icon. If you don’t get a choice of other icons, it means the icon can’t be changed for this accessory.

Group accessories

You can control multiple accessories with the tap of a button by grouping them.

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the right side of an accessory tile and tap the Settings button. Tap Group with Other Accessories.
3. Tap the accessory you want to group with this accessory—another light in the room, for example.
4. In the Group Name field, type a name for the group.
5. Tap Done.

   Turn on Include in Favorites to include the group in Favorites in Home.

See also

• Set up accessories with Home on iPad

In the Home app, you can invite other people to control all your smart accessories, or invite a guest to control some or all of your doors, locks, and security system accessories during specific times.

Residents get local access to all accessories in the home at any time, plus optional remote access, while guests get local-only access to specific doors, locks, and security systems. People you invite can accept in the notification or in the Home app.

Note: Remote access and guest access only work with a home hub, such as an Apple TV 4K or a HomePod speaker.

Invite residents to control accessories

At any time, Home Residents have local access to all accessories in the home, plus optional remote access.

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. On the Home tab, tap the Add button, tap Add People, and then tap Resident.
3. Tap the Add button to choose people with an Apple Account from your contacts list, or enter their Apple Account email addresses in the To field.
4. Tap Invite.
5. Ask the invitee to do one of the following:
   • In the notification: (iPhone or iPad) Tap Accept.
   • In the Home app: (iPhone or iPad) Tap the More button, tap Home Settings, and then tap the invitee’s name.
   • On Apple TV 4K: Tap Show Me on Apple TV and turn on one or more Apple TVs.

Invite guests to control accessories

Home Guests get local-only access to specific doors, locks, and security system accessories, limited to a set schedule.

Note: Home Guests access requires iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or later.

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. On the Home tab, tap the Add button and tap Add People. Then tap Guest.
3. Tap the Add button to choose people with an Apple Account from your contacts list, or enter their Apple Account email addresses in the To field.
4. Select any of the following for the guest schedule:
   • Anytime: The guest can access the selected accessories anytime.
   • Specific Dates: The guest can only access the selected accessories on the dates specified.
   • Specific Days & Times: The guest can only access the selected accessories on the days and during the times specified.
5. Select which doors, locks, and security system accessories the guest can access.
6. Tap Invite.
7. Ask the invitee to do one of the following:
   • In the notification: (iPhone or iPad) Tap Accept.
   • In the Home app: (iPhone or iPad) Tap the More button, tap Home Settings, and then tap the invitee’s name.

Allow others to access your AirPlay-enabled speakers and TVs

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the More button, then tap Home Settings.
3. Tap Speaker & TV and choose an option.

You can allow everyone, anyone on the same network, or only people you’ve invited to share the home. You can also require a password that allows speaker access.

Allow Resident and Guest Attribution

With Attribution, your name can appear in activity history and notifications when you arrive, leave, or interact with accessories.

Note: Home members who use Face Recognition to identify people based on their photo library will still see your name.

1. Open the Home app on your iPad.
2. Tap the More button, then tap Home Settings.
3. Tap a person and then enable Attribution.

See also

• Set up HomePod in Home