iOS and iPadOS 16.2 Betas Overhaul Home App Architecture With Improved Performance

The iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1 betas introduce a new Home app architecture upgrade, which can be installed to upgrade performance. The architecture overhaul follows the addition of the Matter smart home standard in iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1.

home app architecture update
Apple ahead of the launch of iOS 16 promised a new architecture for the Home app, and said that it would be a separate update. Apple says that it brings faster, more reliable performance, especially for smart homes with a lot of smart accessories installed. Users will be able to communicate with and control connected accessories more efficiently from multiple devices at the same time with the Home app.

Updating the Home app architecture will require all Apple devices that access the home to be using the latest software, and those that aren't updated will not be able to access the HomeKit setup through the Home app. To install the architecture update, users will need to have a device running iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, or macOS Ventura 13.1, as well as the HomePod 16.2 software, which is available in a beta capacity to a limited number of testers.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Apple Logo Top Half

Early iOS 26 Software Leak Uncovers Dozens of Upcoming Apple Features

Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code. In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple Leak Confirms Work on Foldable iPhone, AirTag 2, and Dozens More Devices

Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak. As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
iOS 26

iOS 26.3 Beta 1 Features: What's New So Far

Monday December 15, 2025 4:23 pm PST by
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas. We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features. Transfer to Android Apple is making it simpler...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Leak Reveals Foldable iPhone Details

Monday December 15, 2025 9:09 am PST by
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station. According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.2 With Alarms for Reminders, Lock Screen Changes, Enhanced Safety Alerts and More

Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.2 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2 Likely to Offer These 10 New Features

Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...

Top Rated Comments

WiiDSmoker Avatar
41 months ago
The best upgrade would be fixing Siri
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xpxp2002 Avatar
41 months ago

Hope this fixes the HomePods and hue being so bad
I just hope/wish this would allow you to exclude individual HomePods from being home hubs. Or at least set priorities. All of my Apple TVs have wired connections, but half the time the HomePods become the connected hub.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jason_G Avatar
41 months ago
Hi does anyone know if this will impact Homebridge?
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KENESS Avatar
41 months ago

They're repeaters, not hubs. You can pick which is the main one.
You've never been able to select which hub is your main hub. If you're saying it IS possible, which goes against the many thousands of comments and threads devoted specifically to wishing to be able to do exactly this, please detail the process.

Because even if you trick it into using one certain hub as main by powering them on in a certain sequence, or some other some such trick, it changes from one to another at its own (often illogical) discretion eventually anyway.

This has been a point of pain for many many users for years, myself included.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kylo83 Avatar
41 months ago
Hope this fixes the HomePods and hue being so bad
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PJWilkin Avatar
41 months ago
And I now come off the Beta train
i can’t afford to muck with the home setup, as the wife uses it, and has the normal release
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)