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Apple’s new ‘second-party’ accessories for Home are bigger than we thought, per leak

Apple has reportedly been co-developing “second-party” Home accessories with LG, but a new leak reveals there are “second-party” smart home products coming from another company too.

iOS 27.2 code reveals new Home accessories are coming with ‘second-party’ designation that aren’t LG

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Over the past day, we’ve seen several leaks regarding Apple’s ambitions for growing its smart home ecosystem.

Alongside the first-party Home products expected to launch next week, like a new Apple TV 4K, ‘HomePad,’ and HomePod mini 2, the company has reportedly been working with LG to develop a suite of new home accessories.

These accessories are co-built by Apple and LG, but will ship under LG branding. And today leaked images revealed what they look like:

The idea of Apple co-developing products to boost its smart home ecosystem makes a lot of sense. And it turns out, the partnership may not be limited to just LG.

Leaker pdfu found evidence in iOS 27.2 of two additional Home accessories designated as “second-party” products.

Those accessories are a Schneider-branded smart thermostat and temperature/humidity sensor.

As pdfu’s post says, only the new LG accessories and these two Schneider products currently have “second-party” designations in Apple’s HomeKit database.

By being categorized as second-party, accessories will “receive special treatment by the OS.”

It’s not clear if this means Apple similarly worked closely with Schneider on its accessories like it reportedly has with LG. But that’s certainly what the code hints at.

What do you think of Apple’s reported new Home products strategy? Let us know in the comments.

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Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.