The launch of Apple’s iOS 18.4 on Monday contains excellent news for robotic vacuum homeowners. The replace contains assist for controlling robotic vacuums and including them to automations and scenes within the Apple Home app through the Matter protocol. With the official rollout of iOS 18.4, corporations like Roborock, iRobot, and Ecovacs are introducing firmware updates so their robovacs can be totally suitable with Apple Home.
Roborock’s firmware replace “enhances the implementation of the Matter protocol throughout a number of of its premium robotic vacuum fashions,” based on a press launch from the corporate. Roborock fashions that can be getting this expanded Matter assist embody the S8 MaxV Ultra, Saros Z70, Saros 10, Saros 10R, Qrevo Curv, Qrevo Edge, and Qrevo Master.
Roborock says the supported fashions will obtain the firmware replace someday between April 1st and April tenth, permitting customers to manage their robovacs by means of the Home app on gadgets together with the iPhone, Apple Watch, HomePod, and iPad. The replace may even enhance connectivity and Matter assist with sensible house platforms primarily based on Google Home and Amazon Alexa. (That’s in fact why Matter was created within the first place – to assist make sensible house gadgets platform-agnostic.)
Additional fashions, together with the Roborock S8 Max Ultra and Qrevo Slim, can be getting Matter assist in updates scheduled to be launched “within the upcoming weeks and months.”
iRobot introduced that the Roomba Combo 10 Max robotic and Auto Wash Dock, launched final August, can be its first robovac “compliant with Matter protocol and suitable with the Apple Home ecosystem.” Users will be capable of begin, cease, and schedule cleanings for particular rooms utilizing the Home app or voice instructions by means of Siri.
Several of Ecovacs’ robotic vacuums, together with the Deebot X2, X2 Combo, T50, T50 Max, and X8, may even be getting Matter 1.4 firmware updates beginning in the present day. The updates will begin “rolling out throughout these fashions in phases,” Ecovacs’ Associate Brand Marketing Director, Michelle Jones, informed The Verge in an e mail.
Apple initially introduced assist for robotic vacuums in Apple Home by means of Matter throughout WWDC 2024 as one of many many modifications coming with iOS 18, although the options can be restricted to energy management, switching between vacuuming and mopping modes, and specifying which rooms to wash. Matter doesn’t assist extra superior cleansing options like mapping and configuring zones for robovacs to keep away from, so these capabilities would possibly solely be out there by means of every producer’s personal app.
