iOs 16 brings a lot of new features to HomeKit, like a completely redesigned Home app and upcoming Matter support, but it also brings some bad news: the iPad no longer serves as an accessory hub.
HomeKit is Apple's home automation platform, and one of its basic elements is the so-called "Accessories Center", the name by which the device is known to which all HomeKit accessories connect and through which they are connected to the internet, allowing remote control, automation, environments, live viewing of cameras, etc. Classically Apple has always indicated that an Apple TV, a HomePod or HomePod mini, and the iPad could be used as an accessory center. Well, this will no longer be the case with the arrival of iOS 16, and the iPad falls off that list.
It should be clarified that the iPad has never been a good accessory center, since did not allow you to enjoy all the features that HomeKit offers. Being a battery-powered device with mobility meant it wasn't as ideal an Accessory Hub as Apple TV or HomePods. What many users have done with the iPad is to create a control screen for HomeKit, since its large screen allows you to see all your home automation accessories at a glance, and placed in a strategic place it can be a fantastic control center.
Perhaps these changes in the Accessory Centers are related to upcoming features that Apple has in mind for HomeKit and that it has not yet revealed. Remember that we are waiting for a new HomePod to be announced at the end of the year, surely in a "large" version, and a new Apple TV. It may be that these new functionalities have not been revealed so as not to give clues about these new devices that will be the protagonists of HomeKit.
