Use native vacuum cleaner controls in iOS 18

[azmke]

Robot vacuum cleaners will be natively supported by the Home app in iOS 18, so they can participate in automations and scenes, and can be activated by a user’s voice using Siri.

Source: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/06/updates-to-the-home-experience-elevate-entertainment-and-bring-more-convenience/

I think it would be cool to update the plugin to be able to use the new controls 😊

[merdok]

Thanks for the info! That sounds really good, will certainly have a look at this as soon as homebridge will support those devices. Or maybe it already does?

[frtzmsr]

Really appreciate your work!
Would love if you could add the iOS 18 support for vacuums!

[merdok]

Does already homebridge support the vacuums?

[itsJumaah]

Yes it does

[merdok]

Nice, would you have a link which I can check out?

[azmke]

Hi @itsJumaah,

thank you for taking the time to reply. Can you tell me where you got the information from?

I couldn't find any indication of support for vacuum robots in neither the code of the Homebridge nor the HAP-NodeJS repository.

Even on the official Apple page for iOS 18 it still says that "robot vacuum cleaner support" is "coming later this year".

I would be very happy if you could help me. Preferably with a concrete code snippet. Can't wait to integrate my robot vacuum cleaner “properly” into the Home app.

[Semir333]

+1

[merdok]

As far as I am aware the native support for vacuum cleaners is still missing in HomeKit

[MrNoooooooob]

With iOS 18.3, the vacuum cleaners will be unlocked in 2025 and then only via Matter. Homebridge should slowly change course as Apple is moving away from its architecture and would only like to support Matter in the future.

[merdok]

That is odd, we will have to wait and see in what direction this will go... I have the feeling that in general Apple seems to be going away from HomeKit...

[MrNoooooooob]

That is odd, we will have to wait and see in what direction this will go... I have the feeling that in general Apple seems to be going away from HomeKit...

I'm not sure, but Apple even announced in a press release that they are moving away from their architecture.

It's logical that Apple is ditching its framework, as Matter is the better alternative, and I hope that Homebridge is working on a Matter system, as something similar already exists.

[merdok]

Yeah it would make sense to provide matter support in homebridge, otherwise I am not sure how the future will be.

[MrNoooooooob]

Unfortunately, we have to wait and see what happens next.

[Kief5555]

@merdok Apple added HomeKit support for matter robot vacuums.

[merdok]

@Kief5555 the issue is that it first needs to be supported by homebridge. And the issue is, as already it was discussed here, that homebridge would need to switch to matter, as the robot vacuums in HomeKit work only using matter.

[Kief5555]

@Kief5555 the issue is that it first needs to be supported by homebridge. And the issue is, as already it was discussed here, that homebridge would need to switch to matter, as the robot vacuums in HomeKit work only using matter.

Ah shoot! Sorry I thought it was implemented already, just read homebridge/homebridge#3228. My mistakes.

[azmke]

I recommand also reading the discussion in homebridge/HAP-NodeJS#1073. Robot vacuum cleaner support is not coming to HomeKit nor Homebridge anytime soon, sadly.