Now that you can control HomeKit accessories at home, wouldn’t it be great if you could do that while away from home? So far your HomeKit ‘lives’ on your iPhone (think of it as a little database), but when you take it with you it can not access your accessories anymore.
That’s why you need a Home Hub. A hub is an Apple device that stays at home and is always on. It will contain a copy of your HomeKit and can control your accessories and run automations. A hub can be an Apple TV (4th generation or later), an iPad or a HomePod.
To use this iPad as a Home Hub, it needs to be connected to power all the time. You can make an iPad a Home Hub via settings:
And very important, the Home Hub will maintain a connection with your iPhone! Without the need for any network configuration, the hub will create a secure connection to your iPhone, even when away from home. Now you can control your home while you’re on the road or at the office.
Even more fun it is to create an automation that triggers automatically when your approach or leave your home or office. This is called a geofence.
