Smart home PSA: Apple's "new architecture" for Home app becomes mandatory today

In 2022, Apple announced it was adopting a "new Home architecture" for its smart home ecosystem to improve its performance and reliability and make it possible to support different kinds of accessories. Although it was mostly an invisible update when it worked properly, some users who attempted to switch to the new architecture when it first rolled out in iOS 16.2 ran into slow or unresponsive devices and other problems, prompting Apple to pause the rollout and re-release it as part of iOS 16.4.