iOS 18.3 beta adding Home app support for robot vacuums

Apple released iOS 18.3 beta 1 today for developers, five days after shipping iOS 18.2 to the public. One change in the new update is Home app support coming for a key new device category.

New device category coming with iOS 18.3

Back at WWDC in June, Apple announced that robot vacuum support would be coming to the Home app in iOS 18.

Robot vacuums didn’t make it into the initial iOS 18 release in September, but for a while they were still planned for iOS 18.2.

Apple’s website, up until very recently, said the new feature would be coming ‘Later this year.’

That release window was quietly updated earlier this month to instead indicate a delay. It now reads, ‘Coming in an update.’

As discovered by Aaron Perris on X, iOS 18.3 will be adding support for this delayed feature. A variety of new code has been added to iOS 18.3 beta 1 to enable the new device category.

Here’s what Home app support for robot vacuums means, from Apple’s site:

The Home app now supports the core functionality of robot vacuum cleaners, such as power control, cleaning mode, vacuum, mop, and charge status. They can also participate in automations and scenes, and respond to Siri requests. So you can add them to your cleaning routines — or tell Siri to do some spot cleaning in the living room.

iOS 18.3 is still in early beta, so it’s possible robot vacuum support may be removed before the update ships publicly. However, its appearance in beta 1 code is a good sign, and lines up with the expected timing based on the feature just barely missing its original iOS 18.2 launch.

Hopefully when iOS 18.3 officially launches early next year, Apple will have good news to share about device makers supporting HomeKit with their robot vacuums.

Are you excited to add a robot vacuum device to the Home app? Let us know in the comments.

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