How to Add Your Homepod or Homepod Mini to a Homekit Zone
By Andrew Myrick 0 comments Last updated December 15, 2020
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Although the company arrived a bit late, Apple has joined the fray with the help of the HomePod, and now HomePod Mini. These smart speakers are not just fantastic devices to listen to your favorite music or podcasts, but can do so much more. Since these are HomeKit-enabled out of the box, you can ask Siri to control your smart home lighting or just adjust the temperature on the thermostat.
What is HomeKit?
For the uninitiated, HomeKit is Apple’s smart home platform, which is designed to allow you to connect an array of accessories together. Then, these can be controlled from your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or even the Apple Watch. After the accessories are set up for the first time, Siri can be used to control these without ever touching your phone.
HomeKit falls under the phrase “Internet of Things” or IoT. However, IoT is not limited to Apple, as smart home systems associated with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa also fall under this category.
As for what accessories you can connect to HomeKit, there are actually quite a few. Here are some of the most popular accessory categories that work with HomeKit:
- Smart Light Bulbs
- Smart Switches
- Thermostats
- Humidifiers
- Smart Locks
- TVs
- Routers
- Speakers
You’ll want to make sure that these are compatible with HomeKit. Just because a smart plug will work with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, does not mean it will simply work with Apple HomeKit. The easy way to tell is to look for the sticker above on the packaging.
What are Rooms and Zones?
After start acquiring and settings up your various HomeKit accessories, the Home app on your iPhone or iPad will end up getting a bit messy. There will be a bunch of toggles to choose from, and even if you’ve named them properly, it will be a pain to manage.
Thankfully, Apple has added the ability to create Rooms and Zones within the Home app. Rooms are pretty self-explanatory, as you can group accessories from the office into one “Room”. Then, you can toggle these all on and off with a simple “Hey Siri, Turn off the office” command.
Zones may not be as self-explanatory, but these are simple in nature. If you have multiple rooms on a single floor with HomeKit accessories, you can group all of the rooms together to create a Zone. Then, you can just say “Hey Siri, Turn on Upstairs” when you need to head upstairs.
Create a HomeKit Room
So you’ve already added all of your accessories to the Home app and they are ready to be controlled. As we mentioned, your Home app can get a bit cluttered pretty quickly, but you can create different Rooms to add these accessories to. Here’s how you can create a HomeKit Room.
- Open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap the Rooms tab in the bottom toolbar.
- Tap the House icon in the top left-hand corner.
- Select Room Settings.
- Tap Rooms.
- Click on Add Room.
- Give your “Room” a name.
- Tap Save.
Organize Rooms into Zones
After you create all of your Rooms, you can then organize the Home app even further. Zones can be created to group various Rooms and their accompanying accessories together. This makes it easy to control an entire floor at the same time, instead of just a single room or accessory at the same time.
- Open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap the Rooms tab in the bottom toolbar.
- Tap the House icon in the top left-hand corner.
- Select Room Settings.
- Either select the suggested zone, or tap Create New.
- Enter a name of the newly-created Zone.
- Tap Done in the top right-hand corner.
Assign a HomeKit accessory to a Zone or Room
At some point, you’re likely to pick up some more HomeKit-enabled accessories. After setting them up in the Home app, you will need to add them to a Room or Zone to keep things clean and organized.
- Open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Press and hold on the accessory you wish to move.
- Tap Settings.
- Select Room.
- Choose the Room you wish to move the accessory to.
- Tap the X to save.
How to add your HomePod or HomePod Mini to a HomeKit Zone
Although the HomePod and HomePod Mini can act as HomeKit “hubs”, providing the point of control for Siri, you can add these to Rooms and Zones. Here’s how you can set up the HomePod or HomePod Mini and then assign it to a specific Room or Zone.
- Open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap Add Accessory.
- Hold your iPhone near the HomePod or HomePod Mini.
- When the accessory appears, tap on it.
- Give your HomePod or HomePod Mini a name.
- Assign it to a room.
- Tap Next.
- Tap Done.
He has written for a variety of sites over the years, including iMore, Android Central, Phandroid, and a few others. Now, he spends his days working for an HVAC company, while moonlighting as a freelance writer at night.
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