How HomePod can make your smoke alarm better

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HomePod can improve your smoke or carbon monoxide alarm by using sound recognition to send you a Notification if these alarms are heard, even if you are listening to loud music or are not at home. This could be a lifesaver, and it’s ever so simple to enable.

What is Sound Recognition?

Apple has updated HomePods with the ability to recognize when a smoke or carbon monoxide (CO) alarm is heard by the device microphone.

The feature is part of the Sound Recognition capacity of these devices(and also other Apple devices with mics), which is a low level AI that hears for selected sounds such as water or doorbell sounds, and now alarms. When such a sound is heard this system sends a Notification to the user’s phone. The new capacity to hear smoke and CO alarms is now available in HomePod and HomePod mini.

Apple warns that this shouldn’t be, “Relied upon in circumstances where you may be harmed or injured, or in high-risk or emergency situations,” but it’s still helpful, particularly for animal owners when not at home. So, how do you enable this feature?

How HomePod can make your smoke alarm better

What you need for this to work: A smoke and/or CO alarm, HomePod running iOS 16.4 or later.

Once your device is updated you must open the Home app on your iPhone. When you do you should see a message asking you to set up Sound Recognition Press Continue to move to the next step.

Open Home, tap the three dots icon at the top right, then tap Home Settings, followed by Safety & Security. On the next page you’ll be able to toggle the Sound Recognition feature on or off for your HomePods. You’ll also be able to tell the system what sound to listen for, in this case, Smoke & CO Alarm, and which HomePods should listen out for it. You’ll then be able to configure the notifications you want to receive (immediate, as a digest or not at all). Of course, notification means you’ll be made aware of a problem even if you’re not present.

What happens when it hears an alarm?

When an alarm is heard the HomePod will send a notification to you. When you receive one Apple says you’ll be given a chance to listen in to your home, kind of like using the Intercom feature.

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