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How To Read Your Room’s Temperature & Humidity With HomePod And HomePod mini
Along with the new HomePod, Apple has enabled temperature and humidity sensing in the HomePod mini. Here’s how to read it.
Apple has had a busy January 2023. The company has introduced new Mac minis, new M2 MacBook Pros, a new HomePod, and iOS 16.3. Alongside those updates, Apple has now released the 16.3 software for the HomePod, which runs on the new 2023 HomePod and all existing models of the HomePod mini.
What’s great for HomePod mini owners is this 16.3 software update enables a hidden temperature and humidity sensor that has been built into every HomePod mini since Apple unveiled the device a few years ago. This means that your HomePod mini, along with the 2023 HomePod, can now read the temperature and humidity of the room it is in.
What Good Is A Temperature And Humidity Sensor In The HomePod?
Many people may be wondering why Apple has added temperature and humidity sensing to a smart speaker that most people mainly use for music. The answer is that while the HomePod lineup is definitely aimed at streaming music lovers (specifically, Apple Music lovers, Apple hopes), the HomePod and HomePod mini are also designed to be the primary interface you interact with all your smart home devices.
This is because the HomePod and HomePod mini use Siri voice input as the default way to interact with the devices, and the devices themselves are designed to be used as home hubs that link all your smart home devices together.
Now that the HomePod and HomePod mini can sense temperature and humidity in the room it is in, users can create automations that control their other connected smart home devices. These automations, for example, might tell you smart blinds to open if the room gets too cold or a smart fan to engage if the room gets too humid.
The great thing with automations is that you can customize the automation to meet your needs. So now that the HomePod and HomePod mini can sent temp and humidity, the automations you create can use those readings as a triggering factor when deciding to run or not.
Do All HomePods Have Temperature And Humidity Sensors?
OK, so can any HomePod now read the temp and humidity of the room it’s in?
Unfortunately not. Owners of the original HomePod (the big one that Apple sold before introducing the HomePod mini) will not be able to use it to read the temp or humidity of a room. That’s because Apple never includes a temp or humidity sensor with the original HomePod.
However, ALL HomePod minis and the new 2023 HomePod have a temp and humidity sensor, so they can read the temp and humidity of a room provided they are running the 16.3 software or later.
How To Read Your Room’s Temperature & Humidity On HomePod And HomePod mini Using Siri
There are a few different ways that you can use the HomePod and HomePod mini to read the temp and humidity in the room it is assigned to. The first is by using Siri.
For example, you can directly ask Siri, “Hey Siri, what’s the temperature in my bedroom?” Or “Hey Siri, what’s the humidity in my living room?” And Siri will answer you with the temp or humidity level based on the readings from the HomePod or HomePod mini in that room.
How To Read Your Room’s Temperature & Humidity On HomePod And HomePod mini Using The Home App
If you don’t want to use Siri to check the temp or humidity of a room, you can simply open up the Home app on your iPhone (too long as the iPhone is running iOS 16.3 or later):
- Open the Home app.
- On the Home app’s home screen, tap Climate.
- On the screen that follows, you can see the temperature and humidity conditions for the room.