HomeKit tip: this is how the Home app arranges everything for you when you return or leave

To make HomeKit better suited to your life, you can add routines based on the arrival or departure of residents. For example, you can set people as ‘triggers’ in the Home app.

Automatically turn on the lights when you get home

Starting with iOS 11, the Home app, which you can use to control HomeKit devices, has a lot more automation options. One of these is using yourself and other residents as triggers. For example, you can set the lights to turn on as soon as you get home, the thermostat to be slightly higher and your Sonos speaker to play music.

→ Read also: How to create scenes in the Home app (and how to automate them)

This means that in many situations you no longer have to open the Home app to operate your smart devices. Moreover, no one is ever left at home in the dark, because you can link the automation to several people. iPhoned shows you how to set this up.

Add people to automations in the Home app

1. Open the Home app;
2. Go to ‘Automation’;
3. Select the plus sign to add a new automation;
4. Select ‘People arriving’ or ‘People leaving’;
5. Then select ‘Someone arrives’. When several people are linked to the home, you can select who will activate the routine or not. To do this, tap the i icon. If that doesn’t matter, select ‘The first person arrives’. Here you can choose whether the first or last person arriving / leaving is the trigger;
6. Choose the location and time of the automation;
7. Select the scene or devices to be activated, then press next;
8. Test the automation and when it is correct, press ‘Done’.

Building different scenes for your HomeKit devices makes it even easier to set up this automation. Then build two scenes, for when you leave the house and when you are back on the sidewalk.

Monthly Theme HomeKit

Throughout November, we will focus on the HomeKit theme. In the coming weeks, we’ll be taking a deeper look at Apple’s smart device ecosystem for you. Based on tips and background, we investigate how safe HomeKit is, what you can do with it and we look at the future of HomeKit.

All articles in our monthly theme HomeKit

• Use HomeKit on your Apple Watch: control your home from your wrist (30-11-2020)
• Apple Pay, HomeKit and more: you can do all this with the nfc chip in your iPhone (7/21/2020)
• Tested: The best HomeKit speaker and 4 alternatives (13-4-2020)
• In these 5 ways, iOS 13 makes HomeKit simpler and more secure (6/8/2019)
• This is how you create Zones in the Home app, and you can do this with it (3/31/2019)