The iPad is no longer a hub for HomeKit

iOS 16 brings many new features to HomeKit, like a completely redesigned Home app and future support for Matter, but it also brings some bad news: iPad no longer serves as an accessory hub.

HomeKit is Apple’s home automation platform, and one of its core elements is the so-called “Accessory Central”, the name by which the device is known to which all HomeKit accessories connect and through which they are connected to the Internet

, enabling remote control, automation, environments, live viewing of cameras, and more. Classically, Apple has always indicated that an Apple TV, HomePod or HomePod mini, and the iPad can serve as an accessory hub. Well, that won’t be the case anymore with the arrival of iOS 16, and the iPad falls into that list.

It should be noted that the iPad has never been a good center for accessories, since did not allow you to take advantage of all the features that HomeKit offers

. Being a battery-powered device with mobility meant it wasn’t as ideal an accessory hub as the Apple TV or HomePods. What many users have done with the iPad is create a control screen for HomeKit, because its large screen allows you to see all your home automation accessories at a glance, and placed in a strategic place, it can be a fantastic control center.

Perhaps these changes to Accessory Centers are related to upcoming features Apple has in mind for HomeKit that it hasn’t revealed yet. Don’t forget we’re expecting a new HomePod to be announced at the end of the year, surely in a “big” version, and a new Apple TV. These new features may not have been revealed so as not to give clues about these new devices that will be the protagonists of HomeKit.