Skip to Content

How to Share Access to Your HomeKit Devices with Others

by

If you share your home with family or roommates, it often makes sense to share access to HomeKit devices with them so they can control your connected lights, blinds, thermostats, etc. As long as they use an iPhone or iPad running iOS 10 or later or a Mac running macOS Mojave or later, Apple makes it easy for you to grant them access via their iCloud account.

  1. On an ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌, open the Home app and tap on the small home icon in the top left corner.
  2. In the People section, tap on Invite.
  3. Enter the ‌iCloud‌ email address of the person you want to invite, or tap on the "+" sign to find someone in your contact list.
  4. Tap Send Invite.

homekit access invite
This process is nearly identical on a Mac, though you access the People list via the Edit/Edit Home menu.

The recipient will be notified of the invitation and will be invited to accept. Here's what it looks like to them:
homekit invitation received
Once they've accepted, they'll appear in your People list. Tapping on their name will reveal an additional screen where you can toggle Remote Access on or off. Remote Access lets them control your ‌HomeKit‌ devices when they're away and not on your home Wi-Fi network. If you have a home hub, they can even control accessories by voice with Siri. If you don't have a home hub, they'll need to make any changes manually within the Home app.
homekit sharing person settings
Toggling Allow Editing would provide them with more control over your ‌HomeKit‌ setup, allowing them to add and remove accessories or even invite other people to control devices.

If you need to delete someone from your People list, you just need to tap on Remove Person at the bottom of this screen to revoke their access to your ‌HomeKit‌ setup.

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils Two New Products

Monday March 2, 2026 7:49 am PST by
Apple today introduced two new devices, including the iPhone 17e and an updated iPad Air. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic accessories, Apple's second-generation C1X modem for faster 5G, and a doubled 256GB of base storage. In the U.S., the iPhone 17e starts at $599, just like the ...
Apple iPhone 17e feature

Apple Announces iPhone 17e With A19 Chip, MagSafe, and More

Monday March 2, 2026 6:07 am PST by
Apple today announced the iPhone 17e, featuring the A19 chip, MagSafe connectivity, faster charging, and more. The iPhone 17e contains the A19 chip introduced in iPhone 17. It features a 6-core GPU and a 4-core GPU. Apple pointed out that this makes it up to 2x faster than the iPhone 11. The new 16-core Neural Engine is optimized for large generative models. The iPhone 17e also contains...
iPad Air M4 Chip 1

Apple Unveils iPad Air With M4 Chip, Increased RAM, Wi-Fi 7, and More

Monday March 2, 2026 6:05 am PST by
Apple today introduced a new iPad Air, with key upgrades including Apple's M4 chip for faster performance, an increased 12GB of RAM, Apple's N1 wireless networking chip with Wi-Fi 7 support, and Apple's custom C1X modem in cellular models. The new iPad Air has the same overall design as the previous-generation model, which is equipped with the M3 chip, 8GB of RAM, and Wi-Fi 6E support....