Opening doors and gates via HomePod: “You have to log in on your iPhone ” – “Someone wants to control security devices”.

I was quite surprised when I couldn’t open our garage door with a voice command on the HomePod. What at first sounded like a configuration error has a security background.

Anyone who wants to use the HomePod to open security-relevant actuators and devices such as doors or gates will find that Siri requires verification on the iPhone before performing the action. Closing these devices, on the other hand, always works flawlessly.

In my case, I wanted to have the garage door opened via voice command to the HomePod. Siri then replied to me from the HomePod “To do this, you need to log in on your iPhone.” On the iPhone screen, I got a pop-up saying “Someone wants to control secured devices”.

I first searched the Home app for a setting option that would allow me to turn off this security prompt for my garage door. Unfortunately, to no avail.

The reason for this is a security precaution of Apple. Apple wants to avoid that burglars, who are in the house, can open other parts of the building with their voice and a HomePod. And that is also logical. At the same time, this explains why an uncritical close command is possible at any time.

With the Apple Watch, for example, there is no such feature. I can open the garage door directly with a voice command. However, the watch also ensures that I am currently wearing it via the heart rate monitor. If the watch were taken from me, it would lock itself – until I entered the PIN.

The HomePod does not support voice recognition and therefore requires verification on the iPhone via FaceID or TouchID.

If you command Siri to open a gate via CarPlay, for example, you will also succeed. In the end, that’s all that matters to me, because I want to open the garage door on the drive home.