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Connect Apple Home
If you use the Home app on your iPhone, your lights, thermostats, locks and cameras can appear in Theatrium with one tap of approval.
What this does
Most Apple TV owners already have an Apple Home without realizing it. If you have ever added a HomeKit light, plug, sensor or camera to the Home app on your iPhone, or set up a HomePod, that is an Apple Home. Theatrium can read it directly. There is no server to set up and no account to create.
Before you start
- The Apple TV must be signed in to the same Apple ID (iCloud account) as the Home app on your phone. Check on the Apple TV under Settings › Users and Accounts.
- The Home app on your phone should show at least one room and one accessory.
- Ideally, this Apple TV is a Home Hub. It usually becomes one by itself. In the Home app, tap the house symbol at the top, then Home Settings › Home Hubs and Bridges, and look for this Apple TV marked Connected.
Step by step
- During first setup, choose Apple Home on the Choose where your home data comes from screen. Already set up? Open Settings › Connections › More connection settings, select Switch…, then choose Apple Home. If you are on no smart home, select Connect a Smart Home on the Connections page instead.
- The Set up Apple Home screen explains what happens next. Select Continue. tvOS asks whether Theatrium may use your Home data; choose Allow. tvOS asks only once, and remembers the answer even if you delete the app.
- The button reads Waiting for Apple Home… and then Loading your home with a count of your accessories. Theatrium shows a Loading your Apple Home… screen like this each time it opens, until your accessories have arrived. It usually takes ten to twenty seconds.
- Your dashboard opens with a starter layout built from your home. Change any card whenever you like; see Change a card.
What Apple Home can and cannot show
Apple Home gives Theatrium control and live readings: lights, switches, thermostats, locks, blinds, scenes, sensors, cameras, accessory batteries and air-quality sensors. Every card that needs no smart home (weather, radar, calendar, news, markets and so on) works too, and so does the music room.
A few cards need Home Assistant and are marked with a small house symbol in the card chooser. They are: Who's Home, Solar, Home Battery, Storage, System Metrics, Activity and Workouts. Apple Home does not provide that information. The card chooser still shows them, and tells you they need Home Assistant if you pick one.
Notifications (Theatrium Pro) works with Apple Home too. Open Settings › Notifications, and under Motion & Doorbells choose which of your Apple Home sensors raise an alert on the TV while Theatrium is open.