How to add a room and zones within Apple Home

These guides are designed to help you build a well organised and easy to use Apple Home setup, whether you are just starting out or refining an existing home we will walk through how to add rooms in the Home app and explain why they matter. We will also cover zones, which sit above rooms and help you organise larger homes or multi floor setups more effectively.

Why rooms matter in Apple Home

Apple Home lets you control a wide range of smart accessories, including lights, thermostats, locks, cameras, and sensors. As your setup grows, organisation becomes essential. Rooms allow you to mirror the layout of your actual home inside the Home app.

By assigning accessories to rooms such as Living Room, Kitchen, or Bedroom, you make everything easier to find, easier to control, and far more natural to use with Siri. Instead of managing a long list of devices, you interact with your home in a way that matches how you already think about it.

Rooms also form the foundation for scenes, automations, and voice control, so setting them up early makes everything else work better later on.

How to add a room in the Home app

Start by opening the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.

• Tap the plus symbol, then add room
• Choose a name that matches the room in your home.
• Optionally select an image or background to help visually distinguish the room.
• Tap Save to finish.

The room is now part of your Apple Home. You can immediately start assigning accessories to it by editing individual devices and selecting the appropriate room.

Adding accessories to rooms

Once a room exists, accessories can be moved or assigned to it at any time. Press and hold on an accessory in the Home app, open its settings, and select the room you want it to live in. This keeps your Home app tidy and ensures accessories appear in the right place.

What zones are and when to use them

Zones sit above rooms and are designed for grouping multiple rooms together. They are especially useful in larger homes, multi storey houses, or properties with indoor and outdoor spaces.

For example, you might create zones such as Upstairs, Downstairs, or Outside. Rooms like Bedroom, Bathroom, and Office could all live inside an Upstairs zone, while Kitchen and Living Room sit in Downstairs.

Zones do not replace rooms. Instead, they add another layer of organisation that makes it easier to control and reference multiple rooms at once.

How to add a zone in the Home app

Open the Home app and tap the three line menu icon in the top left corner.

• Select Room Settings, then tap Zones.
• Choose Add Zone and give it a clear, descriptive name.
• Tap Done to save.

Once created, assign rooms to the zone by repeating the step and adding that room to the zone. Unfortunately at the movement there is no quicker way to add rooms to zones

After setting up zones, you can use them for more natural Siri commands, such as controlling lights across an entire floor of your home.

Bringing it all together

Rooms and zones form the backbone of a well structured Apple Home setup. Rooms organise individual accessories, while zones group those rooms into logical areas. Together, they make your smart home easier to manage, easier to automate, and far more intuitive to use day to day.

For more Apple Home how to guides, checkout this page