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Apple smart home features will reportedly let iPhones control certified devices

Apple smart home features will reportedly let iPhones control certified devices

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Apple is reportedly working on a way to let iPhones control smart home devices, but GigaOm reports that the experience will be fairly limited at first. The upcoming smart home features reportedly won't give iPhones a grand way of controlling a home, but will instead allow manufacturers of smart home products to certify their products for use with iOS devices — much like Apple's existing Made for iPhone program.

Smart home products that pass through the certification program will reportedly be able to work seamlessly with iPhones over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. They may have some voice control component to them too, but interacting with them will apparently still need to happen through a companion app specific to each device.

If it catches on, more features might just come laterThat would still make setting up a smart home a bit easier than it is today, as buyers could be sure that all of their products could be controlled from their phone. But it's far from the dream of automated appliances that homeowners might be holding on to — and GigaOm sounds fairly disappointed in revealing what it believes to be the nature of Apple's basic new features.

GigaOm also expects Apple to showcase the features at its big event next week. It suggests that Apple will likely reveal some initial partners and could demonstrate use of their products. It says there's no reason to believe that deeper smart home integration isn't coming in the future, just that from what it hears, it isn't coming next week. For now, Apple is slowly stepping in to the smart home, only beginning to see what it can do.