How to Set Up Temperature and Humidity Automations on HomePod

In late January 2023, Apple released a HomePod 16.3 software update that adds humidity and temperature sensing to the second-generation HomePod and all HomePod mini models. This article explains how the features work and what you can do with them.

Apple's new second-generation ‌HomePod‌ features temperature and humidity sensors that can be used to measure the indoor climate. But that's not all. The new 16.3 ‌HomePod‌ software allows you to run automations based on these measurements.

What's more, the existing ‌HomePod mini‌ has a dormant temperature and humidity sensor that Apple activated with the 16.3 update, allowing the same temperature and humidity settings to be used for home automation and device activation purposes. (Sadly, that is not the case for the first-generation ‌HomePod‌.)

Below, we show you how the temperature and humidity sensor information appears in the Home app, and how you can add automations. In our example, after having installed the 16.3 software on a ‌HomePod mini‌, we run through the steps needed to activate a thermostat to heat a room whenever it falls below 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit (19 degrees Celsius).

Our automation is now ready to activate the thermostat to heat the room whenever the temperature drops below the specified measurement. To complement the automation, we could create an additional one that turns off the thermostat when the room reaches a certain temperature.

This is just one example of some of the new features available with the ‌HomePod‌ 16.3 software update. The update also brings users the ability to add remastered ambient sounds to scenes, automations, and alarms, as well as the ability to use Siri to set recurring automations and find people who are in your Find My contacts.