Code references hint at increased smart home device, Matter support in iOS 17.6 update

If you love controlling home accessories via your iPhone, you’re going to like Apple’s upcoming iOS 17.6 update.

After examining a recent public code repository, the discovery of implementation source code for Matter, an Apple-backed smart home standard has been found. Matter is also open source, hence its public-facing code repository.

The changes reference new features en route to unannounced versions of Apple’s platforms:

Code additions reference support coming for these new features in the “middle of 2024” to iOS 17.6, macOS 14.6, watchOS 10.6, and tvOS 17.6 and contain the following:

• release: “Middle of 2024”

versions:
iOS: “17.6”
macOS: “14.6”
watchOS: “10.6”
tvOS: “17.6”

It’s unknown as to exactly which smart home devices will be supported by the update, but the references seem to include more robust air quality monitoring, power management, and water valves. There appear to be references to CO, CO2, formaldehyde, PM10, PM2.5, PM1, and radon monitoring in the code strings.

Other references point out devices such as robotic vacuum cleaners, which were part of the Matter 1.2 update.

The commits on the Github repo were accredited to username bzbarsky-apple, or Boris Zbarsky. The Apple software references were only added in the last few days.

Zbarsky, a former software engineer from Mozilla, has been with Apple for the past four years.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via AppleInsider and Github (1, 2)