Apple’s new HomeKit architecture is a ground-up, under-the-hood rebuild of the company’s Apple Home smart home platform. Apple says it “will improve the performance and reliability of the accessories in your home.” First announced at WWDC, this new foundation for Apple’s smart home is part of the company’s support of the smart home standard Matter.

Following a false start late last year, when the option to upgrade to the new architecture was released with iOS 16.2 but was quickly pulled following multiple user complaints, Apple is trying again. With iOS 16.4, which released this month, users can once again choose to enable the new Home architecture.

However, upgrading is entirely optional. And if you use an iPad as your main Apple Home…

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