In the day-to-day life of each user there are an enormous number of actions that are carried out almost without thinking, that is, a series of routines that are practically carried out at the same time and in the same way. Well, there is a way so that you do not have to do anything again, and it is the iPhone itself that does that routine for you at the time you tell it. This is possible thanks to automations, which is what we want to talk to you about in this post.
What is an automation?
Automations are actions that you can program to be carried out automatically at a certain time and caused by multiple factors such as the time of day, a person entering your home and the activation of a certain sensor that you have in a room. a certain place in your house. It is the way in which you can save the efforts and time you dedicate to perform certain routines so that it is the technology itself, governed by your iPhone, that is responsible for doing it.
There are two types of automations, personal automations and home automations. The way to create them is the same, they are simply focused on different actions. Personal automations are those that are carried out on your device, that is, on your iPhone. An example of this is the possibility of changing the dial of your Apple Watch to the one you previously choose at a certain time of day. As for home automations, they are those that are born on the iPhone but that usually involve other devices, usually connected to HomeKit.
Create and customize your automations
Automations are very easy to create and you also have two ways to do it. Whether you want to create a personal automation or a home automation, you can do it through the Shortcuts app by carrying out the following steps.
- Open the Shortcuts app on your device.
- Click on the Automation tab.
- Click on the “+” located at the top right of the screen.
- Select “Create Personal Automation” or “Create Home Automation.”
- Create your automation based on your needs.
However, there is another way to create a home automation, and it is through the Home application that you have available on your iPhone. To do this, you just have to carry out the steps that we indicate below.
- Open the Home app on your device.
- Click on the Automation tab.
- Click Create New Automation and follow the steps to create the automation you want.
In these two simple ways you can create automations of both types and thus make those routines that you do every day automatically be your own iPhone that carries them out and you can save both the effort of doing them and the time dedicated to it .
Activate chain accessories
One of the enormous advantages of home automation generation is being able to generate a chain reaction of different accessories depending on whether or not just one of them is activated. That is, you can make sure that when one accessory turns on, the rest do too, or that when a sensor is activated, a certain number of accessories start working. This generates a huge amount of facilities and possibilities when using, above all, HomeKit accessories inside your home. For this reason, below we will indicate which are the steps you have to follow to be able to create an automation of this type.
- Open the Home app on your device and go to the Automation tab.
- Click on add “+”.
- To start an automation when an accessory is turned on, activated or deactivated, select the option “An accessory is controlled” or “A sensor detects something”.
- Select the accessory you want to start automation and click Next.
- Now choose the action that will start the automation and click Next.
- Select the accessories and environments that react to the action and click Next.
- Press and hold an accessory on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to configure it. If you want to do it on a Mac, double click on the accessory.
- Click OK.
Control your home based on who is inside
Another of the fantastic advantages that automations can bring you is the activation of different accessories when someone enters or is at home. That is, you can make the lights in your room, kitchen or simply, in your house, turn on depending on whether or not you are inside it, this is called location-activated automation and you need both you and the People you invite to control your home have Share my location turned on for the primary iOS or iPadOS device used to control the home. Here are the steps you have to take to create an automation of this type.
- Open the Home app and go to the Automation tab.
- Click on Add “+”.
- Select if you want the automation to be activated when some people arrive or when they leave. If you want to choose a specific person, click on information. In the same way, you can choose a location or a time for automation.
- Choose the environments and accessories that you want to automate and click Next.
- Press and hold an accessory on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to configure it, double click on it if you are on Mac.
- Click OK.
Automate accessories or actions at a specific time
Another way to generate a certain sequence of actions is based on the time of day, that is, you can have the automation or automations activated at a certain time of your choosing. Here are the steps you have to follow in order to configure an automation of this type.
- Open the Home app and go to the Automation tab.
- Click on Add “+”.
- Select “According to the time” and choose a time and a day. Click People to have the automation happen at a specified time when someone is home. Click Next.
- Choose the environments and accessories that you want to automate and click Next.
- Press and hold an accessory on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to configure it, double click on it if you are on Mac.
- Click OK.
So you can remove them
You may have generated an automation but after time you want to delete it in order to create a new one. The steps to be able to deactivate or simply delete an automation are very simple, we will indicate them below.
- Open the Home App on your device and go to the Automation tab.
- Click on the automation you want to deactivate or remove.
- Enables or disables the Enable this automation option.
Tap Deactivate to choose a time interval during which to deactivate accessories in an automation. On the other hand, if you want to permanently delete it, you just have to click on automation, scroll to the bottom and click on Delete automation.
Automation failures
As in everything, it is possible that these automations that you have created could fail at some point due to multiple external factors. One of these most critical factors is the Internet connection, because all the accessories are connected via Wi-Fi, it may be the case that in the area of the house where a certain accessory is located, the Wi-Fi signal is not good enough. so that the connection remains constant.
Other aspects that can lead to forcing unexpected errors are both the location, if the automation is related to it and the bluetooth connection, which despite the fact that it usually does not present errors, may fail due to any factor and therefore drag the error to the impossibility that a specific automation can be carried out.
