Back in December, Apple pulled one of iOS 16’s biggest features, the new Home architecture that was supposed to be “more reliable and efficient.” According to a reference spotted in iOS 16.3, Apple has scrapped the original version and will soon be pushing out a new one.
According to Nicolas Alvarez and AppleDB Contributor Aaron on Twitter, the original Home architecture was “a buggy failure” and has been completely rewritten. References to “hh2ManualMigrationV2Enabled” have been spotted in iOS 16.3 to replace the previous “hh2ManualMigrationEnabled”.
Users who previously updated will presumably need to reinstall the new version when it arrives, though Apple has said previous upgraders “are unaffected” by the removal of the upgrade option. A support document quickly appeared explaining that the upgrade options had been “temporarily removed” and that the option to upgrade would “return soon.”
According to Apple, the issue is related to “the ability for users to share the Home within the Home app,” though the move to a new version suggests there were deeper problems. Before Apple pulled the update, users complained of issues with the app getting stuck and devices not responding.
The iOS 16.3 update arrived on Monday with several fixes, but the Home architecture was absent despite appearing in the second beta. However, the code strings suggest development is well on its way and it could arrive at any point in an iOS 16.3.1 update or an update to the Home app.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.