How to Use Apple Home Notes to Organize Your Smart Home

This feature you might not know about can help you better manage an Apple-friendly smart home.

If you use Apple HomeKit for your smart home needs, you already know how great the Home app is at organizing your household through rooms, groups, zones, and favorites. However, you may not know that the Home app is also suitable for relaying tips or house rules to others and for storing device information.

You can do all this and more through a lesser-known area of the Home app called Home Notes. We'll show you how to create Apple Home Notes and how they can help organize your smart home.

As the name suggests, Apple Home Notes live in the Home app built into your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Home Notes are easy to overlook as the feature consists of a single empty text field near the bottom of the Home Settings area of the Home app.

While you can technically write anything you wish in Home Notes, its primary purpose is to store information relevant to your smart home. Home Notes you enter stay in sync across all your devices, making it an excellent backup and communication solution.

If you allow others to control your Apple HomeKit accessories, Home Notes will automatically sync to their devices without sending out additional invites. Since Home Notes are shared, everyone in the home can add to or edit them at any time.

As you may know, Apple HomeKit and Matter pairing codes are crucial for adding devices to your smart home. While our guide looks at what to do if you lost your HomeKit pairing code, prevention is key.

Apple Home Notes are perfect for HomeKit and Matter code storage. Simply type in your codes, and they will automatically sync to all the devices connected to your smart home, so you'll never be without your code again.

Home Notes are also great for managing rental properties—like an AirBnb. With Home Notes, you are able to leave your guests tips for navigating your smart home, preferred climate settings, and explainers for automation and scenes your home relies on.

If you rent your smart home, chances are that you have a smart door lock on your property. Like HomeKit and Matter codes, Home Notes work well for storing access codes or combinations, as well as the proper steps for entering them into your devices.

Of course, you can relay general house rules and contact information through Home Notes too. Again, thanks to syncing, any changes you make will update on your tenant's devices automatically without you needing to do anything.

Adding a Home Note is quick and easy. To start, launch the Home app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Next, tap or click the More... button, followed by Home Settings. In Home Settings, scroll down until you see the Home Notes area.

Now, tap or click the Home Notes field, then type in your note. When you finish adding notes, tap or click Done to save.

That is all there is to it. Your Home Notes will automatically sync to all the devices that share your home.

Now that you know where to find Home Notes in the Home app, you can use them to organize your smart home or rental property. With just a few taps or clicks, you can safely store your precious HomeKit and Matter pairing codes, keep track of smart lock access codes, and relay house rules and information to everyone who shares your home.

After graduating with a BAS in Technology Administration, Christopher has been covering Apple HomeKit and the smart home industry for various sites including iMore and HomeKit Hero since 2018. Whether it is installing smart light switches, testing the latest door locks, or automating his households daily routines, Christopher has done it all.