10 Hacks Every Apple Home User Should Know

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.

Use motion sensors to transition audio between speakers

Shortcuts can also be programmed to switch streaming audio from one speaker to another in response to a trigger event, such as motion detection when you leave one room and enter another. This allows your playlist or podcast to follow you around your house so you don't miss anything. In the Add Automation flow, select A Sensor Detects Something and choose the motion sensor you want to initiate the action. Select Closes > Next. Tap Convert to Shortcut, then search for and select Hand Off Playback under the Media library. Set the device to your iPhone, and set the destination to your target smart speaker. Search for and select Set Volume and set the slider to a comfortable level. Tap Next > Done.

Set up double-tap actions to get multiple automations out of a single switch

Your smart switches don't have to be limited to just one function—with an inexpensive smart plug and a few shortcuts, you can have a single press run one automation and a double tap another. The spare smart plug serves as a dummy switch that activates a secondary scene if it detects a second tap before it times out. For example, the first tap simply turns on your usual lighting scene, while a second tap launches an "away" mode that includes turning off lights, turning down your thermostat, and locking your back door.

In practice, this requires you to add a spare plug to your Home devices (tap the plus sign > Add Accessory) and program your lighting scene (tap the plus sign > Add Scene). From there, you'll have to set up two shortcuts: one to have the smart plug turn on when your switch is turned on with a five second timeout, and another to run the second scene if you press the switch again while the dummy switch is still on.

Use virtual dummy switches to prevent repetitive automation loops

While we're on the subject of dummy switches, these can also be used to prevent one-time automations from running over and over if the sensor is triggered multiple times. A dummy switch can prevent your HomePod from repeating announcements each time someone enters a given room (beyond the first time motion is detected) or your robot vacuum from running again if you lock your door, forget something, return home, and lock it again when you leave.

Program a smart plug to reset your motion sensor timer

A final use of that cheap smart plug: program it to continuously refresh your motion sensor's timer so your lights don’t turn off while you’re still present but still turn off when you're not. You'll first need to add the smart plug to Home and set up an automation that turns both your lights and the plug on when motion is detected.

To build the timer automation, you'll need the third-party Controller for the Apple Home app. Go to Automations > Create Automations > A Sensor Detects Something. Choose your motion sensor and select Stops Detecting Motion. Select Control Home, then choose your plug and set it to Turn Off. Select Delayed Execution/Auto-Off, set the delay to 20 minutes, and toggle on Reset timer if triggered again. Finally, you'll need an automation back in the main Home app that turns your dummy plug and lights off.