Smart home, smarter life: The must-have Apple apps for your household in 2025

The year is 2025, and the landscape of our homes is more connected than ever before. Apple devices, with their seamless integration and powerful ecosystem, have become the central hub for managing our daily lives. From controlling lighting with a voice command to optimising grocery lists with AI predictions, the right apps can transform the way we operate our households. Forget clunky interfaces and disconnected systems; in 2025, it’s all about a streamlined, intuitive experience. Here’s a look at some of the up-and-coming, must-have Apple apps for your household.

The core connectors

HomeKit enhanced (Apple): While not technically an app, HomeKit has evolved into a robust, AI-powered platform, deeply integrated across all Apple devices. In 2025, we’ll see it become the ‘brain’ of our smart homes. Expect even more advanced automation, personalised routines based on individual user behaviour and predictive maintenance alerts for connected devices. Think automatic adjustments to your thermostat based on your commute or scheduled dishwasher starts timed for off-peak energy hours. This isn’t just smart home control, it’s intelligent living.
Unified calendar & task manager (Apple): Beyond simple appointments, the upgraded Calendar acts as a central nervous system for the household. Integrated with task management, it anticipates needs based on schedules, automatically generating grocery lists, reminders for household chores and even coordinating childcare logistics. Natural language processing allows you to simply say, “Remind me to water the plants every Wednesday”, and it’s seamlessly added to the schedule. Cross-device synchronisation is flawless, keeping the whole family in the loop.

Beyond the basics: Apps for specific needs

AI-powered meal planning & grocery (e.g. “ReciMe” and “Grocery“): Gone are the days of aimless grocery trips. These smart apps learn your family’s dietary preferences, track inventory in your store cupboard (thanks to integrated smart sensors) and suggest personalised meal plans. They not only generate shopping lists but also optimise for sales, suggest recipes based on available ingredients and even offer virtual cooking assistance through augmented reality. AI is predicting what you’ll crave before you do.
Energy optimisation & sustainability (e.g., “tado°” and “Encom Energy“): With increased focus on environmental impact, apps that monitor and optimise energy consumption are paramount. These go beyond simple graphs. They learn your household’s patterns, suggest energy-saving adjustments and automatically shift energy usage to off-peak hours. They can also track your carbon footprint, offering suggestions for more sustainable choices and connecting you to renewable energy sources in your area.
Household financial management (e.g. “HomeBudget Lite” and “Goodbudget Budget Planner“): Managing household finances is no longer a painful process. These intelligent applications connect to your bank accounts and track spending, automatically categorise expenses and provide insights into areas for improvement. They can even generate budgeting plans tailored to your family’s goals and project future needs based on historical data. Multi-user functionality makes shared financial responsibility effortless.
Smart safety & security (e.g. “IP Camera Viewer” and “Smart Life Hub“): Beyond cameras and doorbells, safety and security apps in 2025 leverage AI to detect anomalies and potential risks. Integrated with smart locks, smoke detectors and motion sensors, they provide proactive alerts, allowing you to react quickly. Think facial recognition that alerts you to unfamiliar faces on your property or intelligent analysis of audio feeds to detect potential break-ins.

The seamless experience

What truly sets these apps apart in 2025 is their seamless integration with each other and the Apple ecosystem. Voice commands through Siri are increasingly natural, data flows effortlessly between devices and augmented reality (AR) overlays help you visualise information in your physical environment. The user experience is consistently intuitive, requiring minimal setup and learning.

Looking ahead

As we move further into 2025 and beyond, expect even more advancements in AI, automation and personalised user experiences within these household apps. The future of home management is smart, connected and designed to make our lives easier and more efficient. With the right combination of these powerful tools on your Apple devices, controlling your home will be simpler and more intuitive than ever before. The era of the truly smart home is finally here!

Our week that was: Llanerchaeron and National Apple Day

It’s been a busy old week – one that was full of apples! Firstly, we took a trip to Llanerchaeron, a nearby National Trust property where there’s a walled garden full of different species of ancient apple trees amongst other plants.

As well as admiring them, I spent a fair amount of time picking them, chopping them, shredding them, juicing them and cooking them. After attending an apple event at nearby Hafod, we decided it would be a great idea for our local Women’s institute to hold something similar – so we did!

Llanerchaeron

We booked a day with our dog sitter so that we could get out and do something a little different. We drove to Aberaeron to visit Llanerchaeron, just a few miles inland. It’s a Georgian property, designed by the famous architect, John Nash.

The Trust has decided to leave the house as it was left to them; i.e. with any of the later additions such as furnishings and the art nouveaux/art deco fireplaces. Having said that, much of the ‘bones’ of the house remains remarkably untouched – so there were fabulous 18^th century doors & windows, coving and other plasterwork, flooring and so on. This untouched aspect was particularly the case in the service areas – and it was these spaces that we especially loved. The old service kitchen, pantry and cobbled outer courtyard were very atmospheric. There were separate rooms for cheesemaking, brewing, bread proving & baking, butchery, salting, laundry and so on – plus simple bedrooms for some of the staff.

In the grounds were stables, tack rooms, animal pens and the like. Also, lovely, walled kitchen gardens and small ornamental lake that were open to wander around.

We took lots & lots of photos – both inside and out – have a look at some of them below…

National Apple Day

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about going along to an apple event at another nearby National Trust property, Hafod. We decided it would be a great idea for our local Women’s institute to hold something similar. The lovely people that we met at the Hafod Walled Garden agreed to allow us to borrow their apple juice making equipment; a shredder and a fruit press.

Our WI event was planned for Saturday 21st October – which just happened to be designated National Apple Day – completely unintentional on our part! The rain held out for the most part, and we had lots of visitors come to the cottage to enjoy the homemade apple cake, apple cookies, mulled apple juice and other apple-themed delights.

A few of the WI members spent the previous week picking apples in local gardens and orchards… and some of the people who came along brought apples from their own gardens. We had a well-planned and executed conveyor system where we chopped, shredded, pressed and bottled the apple juice… over half a dozen large sackfuls.

Our week that was: Apple Day

We’re into October – summer has had her last hurrah – no more unexpected yet very welcome hot, sunny days. Thoughts are turning to what to do on my birthday next month, what we’ll do for Christmas and whether I’ll leave filing our online tax returns to the last minute… again!

This weekend, I attended the 2^nd annual Apple Day organised by the Hafod Walled Garden Group. The garden is located within the National Trust-owned Hafod Estate, a place we often go, but never to this hidden area that’s down off the signposted walking routes.

I saw the event advertised on their Facebook group, and organised to attend with a friend from the village. We both wanted to learn how to make apple cider vinegar. We filled a couple of large trugs with apples (many of the gardens in the village are laden) and set off.

Before long we were part of the conveyor belt of people – chopping apples, putting them through an electric shredder before finally extracting the juice with the manual press. All very physical work, but very enjoyable!

When all the apples had been turned to pomace, we set off back home, each with a litre bottle of fresh apple juice under our arm.

One of the Hafod Walled Garden Group members has posted some lovely photos of the day on her Instagram account – you may even catch a glimpse of me in there somewhere!

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Cakes & Bakes: Apple and raisin puff pastry tart

We are ‘pudding’ rather than ‘starter’ people and always have a sweet ending to our daily evening meal.

Sometimes, I’ve got to the day and haven’t had the time to make a dessert. At times like this, there are a few quick sweet dishes that can be rustled up in about half an hour. One such is jam and coconut slice which is one of Justin’s favourites from his childhood – and also great for using up pastry scraps.

Another is an apple and raisin puff pastry tart – using a sheet of ready-made puff pastry, of course.

All it takes is a couple of cooking apples – peeled, cored and chopped; a handful of raisins (pre-soaking them for an hour makes them more juicy and adds another layer of flavour – strong tea, brandy or armagnac perhaps – so recommended but not a necessity if your in a rush); a pinch of ground spice and aforementioned packet of puff pastry.

Delicious served with cream, creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream.

Click here to pin the recipe for later!

Apple and raisin puff pastry tart

2017-05-11 09:16:59

Serves 4

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

35 min

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

35 min

Ingredients

75g/2⅔oz raisins
2 Bramley (or other cooking) apples
20g/¾oz butter
50g/1¾oz demerara sugar
¼tsp ground cinnamon
1 packet of ready-made, ready-rolled puff pastry

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Instructions

Soak the raisins in a cup of hot, strong black tea for at least an hour
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Peel, core and rough chop the apples
In a large saucepan, melt the butter
Add the chopped apples, soaked raisins, sugar and ground cinnamon
Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until the apple just begins to soften
Roll out the puff pastry and cut into two equal lengths
Grease a 20cm/8-inch round or square baking tin and lay one of the lengths of pastry evenly into the tin allowing some overlap over the edge
Spoon the apple and raisin mixture evenly on to the puff pastry
Lay the other length of pastry over the top and brush with a little melted butter
Sprinkle a tablespoon or so of golden granulated sugar over the top if desired
Bake for 20 minutes or until the top of the puff pastry is a lovely golden brown

Notes

Serve with vanilla ice cream or thick pouring cream

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/