Homeowners of the HomePod and HomePod mini can now have their good speaker alert them if it hears an alarm, like a smoke or carbon dioxide detector.
The brand new function, which was introduced alongside the HomePod 2 in January 2023, is now lastly out there after Apple enabled the function. You may discover the choice to allow alarm alerts contained in the House app and that is the place the alerts will take you if you obtain them as effectively.
Fortunately, this alteration does not require that anybody buys any new {hardware} and is accessible on all current fashions.
Sound it out
The brand new addition was first reported by TechCrunch (opens in new tab) and is designed to warn folks if the HomePod hears an alarm even once they aren’t at residence. That alarm may very well be a smoke or carbon dioxide sensor as talked about, each of which you are prone to need to find out about even when you aren’t round.
What’s extra, anybody who has a HomeKit digital camera configured within the House app may also be proven the feed once they obtain an alert on their iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. We might at all times counsel utilizing a HomeKit Safe Video digital camera the place attainable as effectively, partly due to this function but additionally since you get to make use of the House app when viewing recorded clips later.
Apple says that all the data gathered and used for this new sound detection function is dealt with on-device, so it does not know what is going on on inside your house.
Proper now it seems that Apple solely permits the HomePod to alert folks when it hears an alarm, however it’s attainable that it may very well be configured to ship alerts when different issues are heard as effectively. That would embody breaking glass, for instance, or a canine barking. Apple hasn’t urged that any of these options are coming, however with WWDC23 simply across the nook it is nonetheless attainable.
