With iOS 18.4 you can now use robotic vacuum cleaners inside of the Apple Home app and with Siri. It’s still problematic but here’s what you can do so far, and what the benefits are.
Robotic vacuums had been an oft-requested feature for what was previously known as HomeKit for ages, and is now called Apple Home. It’s still a work in progress, chiefly because there are no there are no robotic vacuum cleaners on the market that fully support Apple Home.
There are, however, certain robotic vacuums with limited support that are now readily available.
What’s available
SwitchBot, for example, has several robot vacuums that now show up in the Home app as a vacuum — or sometimes as a switch. Other models from other manufacturers are still in beta testing.
Some such as SwitchBot, Eufy, and Roborock, have received their Matter certification, which is necessary to work in Apple Home. These are waiting before releasing the updates, likely until iOS 18.4 is released.
As well as the hardware, a robot vacuum cleaner, you will need iOS 18.4 or iPadOS 18.4. If you have an older device, the vacuum with show as “Not Supported” in the Home app.
For our test, we used the Ecovacs X8 Pro Omni. We had pre-release beta software ahead of the public release on March 20th.
You also need a Matter hub, which for Apple users, would be a HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV.
Setup in Apple Home
Setting up a robotic vacuum in the Home app varies slightly, depending on your manufacturer. But overall the process starts with pairing the device to your Home app, which typically involves scanning or copying a pairing code.
You’ll add the vacuum like any other accessory, giving it a name, assigning it a location, and turning on any automations that Home app suggests that you’d like to use. The vacuum will now show in the room you specified with a small vacuum icon under the “Other” category.
How to use robotic vacuum cleaners in Apple Home
The most basic way to control an Apple Home robotic vacuum cleaner is to open the Home app, tap the vacuum, and tap the play button to start a cleaning session. By default, the robot vacuum will clean your whole home, as that’s what is typically set up manufacturer’s own app.
There are often other options to choose from, though. For example, the vacuum may support both mopping and vacuuming.
In our case, Ecovacs X8 Pro Omni only has the option for vacuum or vacuum and mop.
Importantly, you can also designate the rooms for cleaning as well, but this is one are that remains confusing. That’s because you don’t specify which you want by choosing the rooms as in the Home app.
Instead, the rooms have to be set up in the app the manufacturer provides for the robot vacuum. Nonetheless, you end up with a map of your home, with rooms and zones, which are collections of rooms like “All Downstairs.”
With this set up, you can check or uncheck any rooms to clean. These typically can be set up to be the default whenever you start the robot vacuum, or you can choose any or all rooms as you need.
Then an advantage of using robot vacuums in the Home app is that you can include the cleaning in scenes. Plus the Home app should also be able to alert you when it starts or stops cleaning a room.
Using Siri to control robotic vacuums
Aside from the Home app, you can also use your voice to control your robot. Using Siri, you can send it out to vacuum, mop, or vacuum and mop the home.
You do need to specify, because saying “vacuum the living room” would omit the mopping. So a sample phrasing would be “vacuum and mop the living room, dining room, and kitchen.”
Then you can also use Siri to tell the bot to head back to the dock, or to report on its battery life.
Matter finally making headway
Unlike with many accessories, robotic vacuum cleaners aren’t directly Apple Home devices. Rather, they work with Matter.
Matter is intended as this unifying smart home standard. Instead of buying a product that works with Apple Home, you buy one that works with Matter.
Then it will work with all the various Matter-compatible platforms like Apple Home, Samsung SmartThings, Amazon, and Google Home. This should make it faster for devices to come to market and make developing them more affordable, too.
Robotic vacuum cleaners were first added to the Matter specification in the fall of 2023 with version 1.2. This was basic on/off and mode controls though.
Room selection was added in Matter 1.4 as “service area clusters.” While Apple has not commented, it does look as if this were the facility that the company was waiting for before supporting robot vacuums into Apple Home.
Yet we are still at a stage where it isn’t clear when manufacturers have been certified for the basic Matter 1.2 or the more advanced Matter 1.4. It’s not clear what functions of the robot vacuum will be supported in Apple Home.
This will improve and even now, for instance, Ecovacs and Roborock both have their Matter 1.4 certification and others are forthcoming
Much more to come from robotic vacuums
That all said, this is only a first rollout here. It’s taken a lot to get to this point and there still is room to grow.
For example, we’d love to see more options exposed in Matter. Manufacturer apps, for instance, can have extra controls such as the ability to adjust suction strength, water flow, and route type.
Going further, it would be more convenient to have the robot’s floor plan sync with the rooms in the Home app. Or maybe even allowing you to access the onboard camera from Apple Home.
This doesn’t all fall on Apple, though. Apple is part of the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which is the organization that oversees the development of Matter.
Apple, along with many other member organizations, work together to create the standard and they will all need to keep working to enable these other features.
Originally, Apple announced robotic vacuums were coming with iOS 18, and would be shipping by the end of 2024. That date was missed, but finally with iOS 18.4 in April 2025, we are finally getting robotic vacuum cleaners in the Home app.
If you want to test it out for yourself, using the beta of iOS 18.4, we’d recommend the Ecovacs X8 Pro Omni, the Roborock Saros 10, or the Roborock Saros 10R as they’ll be among the first to add support with over-the-air updates.
