Hello everyone! In this article I’m going to show you how to use the Apple HomePod’s temperature and humidity sensors that come with the latest update to iOS 16.3. With this new feature you can easily monitor and automate the temperature and humidity in your home with no extra hardware or setup needed!

With the new temperature and humidity sensing in the HomePod, you can easily check what the temperature is in the room your smart speaker is situated in just by asking Siri. Just say “Hey Siri, what’s the temperature in here?” and you’ll get an accurate reading. The same goes for checking humidity.

You can also view the current readings in the Apple Home app on an iPad or iPhone. Just open the Home app, tap Climate in the top shortcuts row, then tap Temperature or Humidity to get a list of all your HomePod’s current readings. Tap on any HomePod card to get more details about its sensor settings.

If you’re away from home, you can still view the readings. Just open the Home app, go to the room your HomePod is in (i.e. living room or bedroom), and you’ll see the current temperature and humidity readings in the top row.

In addition to just checking readings, you can also use Apple’s Home app to set up automations using your HomePod’s sensors. For example, you can set it up so that when the temperature rises above a certain point, a fan connected to a smart plug will turn on. Or when humidity drops below a certain point, a humidifier will turn on. You can even set up automations that respond to different times of day, like lowering smart shades when temperatures rise between noon and 7PM.

Apple does caution that accuracy isn’t guaranteed if your HomePod is playing music for long periods of time at high volumes, so keep that in mind when setting up automations. To get started, just open the Home App, tap plus button in the top-right corner, select Add Automation, choose A Sensor Detects Something, select your temperature or humidity sensor, decide what will trigger the automation (if temperature/humidity rises above/below a certain point), choose when this will happen (any time, during day/night/specific times) and what action should occur (turn on fan/humidifier/scene). You can also have the action automatically turn off after a set period of time.