How to control house lights with your iPhone

If you’ve been thinking about adding smart lights to your home or recently bought your first set, they’re a practical upgrade that changes how you manage your house lighting. Instead of hunting for switches in the dark or forgetting to turn off the lights when you leave, you can handle everything right from your iPhone.

Thanks to the Home app on the iPhone, you can control your smart lights directly from your iPhone, offering a seamless and secure experience. You can also automate your lights to turn on or off at specific times or integrate with other smart accessories, allowing you to take full control. So to help you get started, here’s how you can easily control your house lights with your iPhone.

Setting up and controlling smart lights with your iPhone

While every smart light brand has its own dedicated iOS app, you can easily manage them using Siri’s voice commands. To get started, you’ll first need to connect your smart house lights to the Home app on your iPhone. Here’s how to quickly set it up.

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Connecting your smart lights to the iPhone’s Home App

The iPhone’s Home app makes it easy to control and automate your smart lights across all your Apple devices. Here’s how you can set it up and manage your lights:

1. Open the Home app.

2. Navigate to the Home tab if you aren’t there already.

3. Tap the plus sign (+) in the top-right corner.

4. Select Add Accessory.

5. Use your iPhone’s camera to scan the eight-digit HomeKit code or QR code included with your lights. Then, follow the on-screen instructions to add them.

Now that your smart lights are connected, you can use Siri to control them directly with voice commands. To control your smart lights using Siri, you’ll first need to make sure Siri is enabled. To do this, Open Settings, then scroll down and tap Siri & Search. Toggle on Listen for “Hey Siri” to enable voice control. Then, simply follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup process.

With Siri enabled, you can easily manage your smart lights by giving simple voice commands like, “Hey Siri, turn on the living room lights” or “Dim the bedroom lights.”

How to create smart light scenes on the iPhone

The Home app also allows you to create custom scenes for easy control. Basically, scenes allow you to control multiple devices at once with just a single tap or voice command. 

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For example, you could create a “Good Night” scene that turns off all your lights and adjusts your thermostat or set up a “Morning” scene that dims your smart lights, adjusts the thermostat, and wakes you up with relaxing music from your HomePod, Apple TV, or any AirPlay-enabled speaker as you start your day. Here’s how you can create smart light scenes on your iPhone via the Home app:

1. Open the Home app.

2. Tap the plus sign (+) and choose “Add Scene.”

3. Select a pre-made scene such as “Arrive Home” or create your own custom scene by clicking “Custom.”

4. Select and add the accessories you want and adjust brightness and colour settings for individual lights as per your liking.

5. Tap Done to save your scene.

6. To turn on a scene, tap or click it. Or you can activate it using Siri by simply saying, “Run Arrive Home” or whatever scene name you set.