Apple Nudges HomeKit Robot Vacuum Support Rollout to Next Year

Monday December 2, 2024 4:36 am PST by Tim Hardwick

Apple has quietly tweaked its Home app webpage to indicate that its upcoming robot vacuum control feature will now arrive in early 2025 rather than later this year, as previously advertised.

Roomba and HomeKit Feature
When support is added, Apple device users will be able to start a robot vacuum via HomeKit automations and scenes, or ask Siri to clean a specific room. Apple says the Home app will support the "core functionality" of robot vacuum cleaners, such as vacuuming, mopping, power control, cleaning mode, and charge status.

Apple said at WWDC in June that the iOS 18 feature would arrive later in 2024 – presumably with iOS 18.2, due this month – but that's apparently no longer the case. Apple tweaked a footnote on the Home app webpage in early November, signaling the delay. When it does arrive, controlling robot vacuums with Siri will initially be available in English (U.S.) only.

Tag: HomeKit Guide

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

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Top Rated Comments

daniesy

25 months ago

Is anyone surprised? Maybe we need the new iPhone 17 to have this advanced feature.

Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)

cookiemonster89

25 months ago

I'm wondering how Apple Keynotes would look like, if they only announce the features ready in time for the .0 release.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

McWetty

25 months ago

How much R&D money does Apple allocate to HomeKit development? $3.50 and some happy meals? Seems like a complete non-issue… but here we are.

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

JungleNYC

25 months ago

I really wish Apple would invest more time and effort into HomeKit. It's such an important piece of the ecosystem, and it just feels so neglected.

It's also something that Apple Intelligence would be very helpful with eventually, helping users craft Scenes and Automations, etc.

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

insomniac86

25 months ago

How is this a complicated thing?

I feel like the entire HomeKit team at Apple is just two part-time workers.

Excluding the UI design work, this shouldn’t take more than a single senior programmer a couple of weeks to do.

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)