Home Updates, Critical Alerts
iOS 15.5 also includes a couple of minor changes to the Home app, which now gains the ability to send Critical alert notifications along with Wi-Fi signal strength bars for your HomePods. This latter feature appears to work even if your HomePods are still running iOS 15.4.1.
You can find this indicator by opening up your HomePod details in the Home app and scrolling down to the bottom, where the serial and model numbers are shown. Before iOS 15.5, the Wi-Fi Network would show your SSID, but now a new signal strength indicator appears beside it. It’s a small thing, but it could be very handy for ensuring optimal placement of your HomePods around your living space.
The first iPadOS 15.5 and macOS 12.4 betas were also released the week, and they’ll likely be followed by a public beta release any day now. If you’re planning on trying those out, be aware that you’ll need to update both your iPad and Mac to the new betas to keep using Universal Control.