Finally! Since iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, you can disable automatic switching between Home hubs for Matter and HomeKit. You can easily choose and use a preferred housing hub. As a result, the Home app will always use this hub.
If you have multiple HomePod speakers and Apple TVs, the Home app used to automatically choose a home hub. The automatic selection could constantly change and that could be disturbing in some cases. From now on you can pin a home hub and use it anytime.
Automatic switching Home Hub
Apple’s software for HomeKit, Thread and Matter runs on a home hub. This could be an Apple TV, HomePod or HomePod mini. In previous versions, the software chose which hub to use and the selection was performed automatically. In some cases this could have an unfavorable outcome. From iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia you can choose and pin a home hub.
Why not switch hubs
There are several reasons why you want to disable the automatic switching of home hubs and choose a fixed hub for HomeKit and Matter, among others.
- You have an Apple TV or HomePod that sits in the middle of your house and has good wireless range for all your smart devices.
- You’ll want to assign an Apple TV 4K with a faster processor as the home hub instead of a HomePod mini or older Apple TV. This has better processing power.
- You want to choose an Apple TV that is connected to the home network with an Ethernet cable instead of WiFi. A wired hub can provide a better experience than a wireless connection.
- The wireless connection of a HomePod or Apple TV is weaker than the other.
Choose Home Hub and disable automatic switching
- Open the Home app on iPhone, iPad or Mac
- Navigate to the ‘Property’ tab
- Tap or click on the three dots at the top right
- Choose ‘Home settings’
- Open ‘Hubs and bridges’
- Disable the ‘Automatic selection’ option
You can then choose a desired hub for Matter, Thread and HomeKit under ‘Preferred home hub’. For example, choose your wired Apple TV or a HomePod that is centrally located in the home. If this hub does not respond, fortunately there is a solution.
Woninghub is not responding
If you set a home hub as a permanent hub, the software will always use it for automations and controlling smart devices. If this home hub no longer responds, Home will automatically choose another hub as a backup.
As soon as the preferred home hub is back online, Home will automatically switch to your chosen hub. This will keep your smart devices working. This was also the case in previous versions, but Woning did not automatically switch to the ‘best home hub’.