The first iOS 18.4 beta dropped yesterday, and includes an exciting smart home addition that previously went under the radar. As tested by Jonathan at Smart Home Centre, the Home app now supports robot vacuums and maps that integrate with the Matter protocol.
Right now, the only compatible model on the market is the Switchbot S10 Robot Vacuum and Mop, but many other manufacturers have pledged support for Matter with forthcoming software updates.
While almost all of these vacuums have iPhone apps you can control them with, the native support through the Home app enables Siri voice commands and integration in the unified dashboard alongside all your other smart home accessories. You can also then include the vacuum and mop actions in your normal HomeKit automations and scenes.
Once configured, you’ll be able to control your vacuum with voice commands on your iPhone, HomePods, Apple TV and any other iOS device.
The Apple Home app includes a simple-but-capable set of controls for the S10 robot vacuums. You can tell the vacuum to start cleaning, or tell it to stop a session in progress, enable or disable the mop and set a preset vacuum cleaning mode (like Quick or Deep Clean options). There’s also a “Send to Dock” button which should tell the vacuum to return home to its charging station.
For more advanced robot vacuum and mop features, like room mapping or setting custom routes, you will still need to open the companion app from the manufacturer. But for the fundamentals, you’ll be able to do it just through the Apple Home app.
iOS 18.4 is currently in developer and is expected to be released publicly as a free iPhone software update sometime in April. Matter robot vacuum support is also available in the next version of other Apple operating systems, like iPadOS 18.4, tvOS 18.4, watchOS 11.4, and macOS 15.4.
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