iOS 26 Includes Adaptive Temperature Option for Automatic Thermostat Adjustment

iOS 26 includes a new Home app feature called Adaptive Temperature, which is designed to adjust the thermostat automatically when you leave the house or arrive back home.

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Adaptive Temperature can be turned on by opening up the Home app, selecting a thermostat, opening up the settings, and then tapping on Adaptive Temperature. With permission, Adaptive Temperature can switch between temperature modes (Cool/Heat/Auto/Off) as needed, predict user arrival based on daily schedule to adjust temperature, and change the temperature based on room occupancy if occupancy sensors are available.

According to Apple, Adaptive Temperature relies on Activity History to determine whether someone is home. The thermostat will adjust temperature based on a "home" state, which is when someone is in the house, and an "away" state, which is when no one is home. There's also an "extended away" state that further tweaks the temperature if no one is home for longer than 24 hours, or if every member of the home is a certain distance away.

The Activity History feature in the Home app does not specifically log when someone leaves or arrives home, but it does keep track of when the home's activity state changes. Turning off location sharing with the Home app will prevent Activity History from using a device's location to trigger Adaptive Temperature.

It's not yet clear if Adaptive Temperature is working, or if thermostat makers need to release software updates to enable the feature. On Reddit, several users have been unable to find the Adaptive Temperature setting for their HomeKit or Matter-compatible thermostats.

Related Roundups: iOS 26, iPadOS 26
Related Forum: iOS 26

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Top Rated Comments

sparkhill Avatar
14 weeks ago

… if you use Celsius, you can set things in half degree increments..
This is intended as 100% respectful. Each incremental Celsius degree equals 9/5 an incremental Fahrenheit degree, so the precision between 0.5 degrees Celsius is very close to 1 degree Fahrenheit. And I wish the US was on the metric system.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
14 weeks ago
Is that what the “thermal imaging” September event logo was about?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ss2cire Avatar
14 weeks ago
Why wouldn't this be part of an automation? like "when I leave home, turn the thermostat down to 65, when I arrive home, turn the thermostat to 73" or something, no need for "learning". But I guess we need all this "automated stuff"
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BuffaloTF Avatar
14 weeks ago

ecobee is notorious for not allowing full control over their devices via the Home app. All new ecobee thermostats and sensor come with Thread radios yet they refuse to implement Matter over Thread.

Hopefully they supports Adaptive Temperature, otherwise Apple really needs to build in automatic support for all HomeKit devices.
Ecobee already does this on its own. It should be the first thing you turn off.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ericg301 Avatar
14 weeks ago
Nest/Google home has had this for ever (and now tied into HomeKit)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tennisproha Avatar
14 weeks ago
ecobee is notorious for not allowing full control over their devices via the Home app. All new ecobee thermostats and sensor come with Thread radios yet they refuse to implement Matter over Thread.

Hopefully they supports Adaptive Temperature, otherwise Apple really needs to build in automatic support for all HomeKit devices.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)