How to Setup a New Home in HomeKit
HomeKit is the foundation of my smart home, it houses all of my accessories and automations in one easy-to-use app. Let’s walk through how to setup a new home with Apple HomeKit in the Apple Home app!
Getting familiar with The Home App
The home app is a very simple app. By default, it comes with 1 home already setup, but you are able to add as many homes as you like. This is great if you have multiple homes, or want to split a separate part of your property such as a shed or workshop into a different home.
When you first open the home app, it will give you a popup screen with a little bit of information on what the app is for and some of the features that is has.
If you hit continue here it will take you to your default home named “My Home”
Home Tab
To start out with, there will be 3 tabs at the bottom the screen, one showing the Home Screen which will list all of your favorite accessories and automations that are setup.
On this page, there is a plus in the top right where you can add in new accessories, rooms, share the home with others living int, and the option to add a new home like we talked about in the beginning of this post.
Automation Tab
The automation tab is where you can add different automations that run at certain times, or when people leave or arrive at home. Check out this article about creating automations!
Discover Tab
The discover tab is where you can see different articles that Apple has created to learn more about the home app and its features! You can also find links to a shop where you can buy HomeKit compatible accessories
setting Up Rooms
Rooms are the most important organizational pieces of your home. Like a physical home with rooms, the Home App is broken down exactly the same. We will add different rooms and then place our accessories into those rooms.
Setup a new room by clicking the plus in the top right corner of the home tab, and selecting “Add Room”
A screen will pop up where you can type in all of the information that you need to create the new room.
Below the room name, you can select a background image for each room to help differentiate them. Apple has provided a handful of default options, but you can also upload your own photos for the room backgrounds.
Once you have your room named and a background picked, click save and your room is ready to go!
Keep repeating this process until you have all of your rooms setup that you be adding accessories to!
Room Tab
Now that you have all of your rooms setup, we have access to a new tab at the bottom – Rooms!
You can swipe left to right on this tab to see all of your different rooms that you have setup. You can also click the home icon in the top left to manually click between the rooms.
You can also modify rooms after they’re created. To do this, click on the home icon in the top left of the screen. Select Room settings, and then you can modify the name and background the same as when you created the room.
Conclusion
Now we have this home fully set up! The next step is going to be adding our accessories to it and getting them placed in their room. Check out the next post in this series to get accessories added!
If you have any questions or comments, comment them below and I’ll do my best to respond to them all!
