PingKit 3.4: Share Cards, Watch This Host, IPv6 and 90 Days on the Mac
Short version. PingKit 3.4 turns three results into an image you can share, with the PingKit name on it: a traceroute's route, a Session Watch grade and a Security Scan score on iPhone, and the Security Scan score on the Mac. A finished Ping can hand its host to Uptime Watch with Watch this host. Traceroute explains its route in plain words, History tells apart two networks behind the same router address, and Devices recognizes many more kinds of device. Ping, DNS lookups, the HTTP and SSL tools, IP Geolocation and My Network handle IPv6 more fully. And with Guardian, PingKit Agent keeps 90 days of your Mac's alerts and timeline, which your iPhone can scroll back through.
Two updates, released together: PingKit 3.4.0 for iPhone and PingKit Agent 3.4.0 for Mac.
Share a Result as an Image
Three results in PingKit for iPhone have a Share as Image button: the route of a finished traceroute, the grade of a finished Session Watch session and the score of a finished Security Scan. On the Mac, PingKit Agent has the same button beside its Security Scan score, and its share menu can also save the card as an image file. Each card carries the PingKit name and pingkit.app, and the text shared with it ends with a link to PingKit on the App Store. Sharing a card is free, on every plan.
The route card shows where the trace went, how many hops it took, the countries it passed through and the hops themselves with their round-trip times, folded to fit when the route is long. The Session Watch card shows the grade with the latency, jitter and packet loss behind it, plus lag under load when the session measured it. The Security Scan card shows the score, its letter grade and how many checks passed, and how many findings are warnings or critical.
What a Card Leaves Out
A card is made to be posted where strangers can see it, so it leaves out what identifies your network: no Wi-Fi network name, no public IP address, no hardware (MAC) address and no device name you typed. A hop inside your own network, or in your provider's shared address range, shows its address only, never the name it answered with, and a trace to a device at home is titled "Route to a device on your network". The Security Scan card carries the score and the counts, and none of the findings.
Ping: Watch This Host
When a ping finishes on iPhone, a Watch this host button opens Uptime Watch with the host filled in. Uptime Watch has no ping of its own, so it starts from a website check of https:// and the host, which you can edit before you add it. It checks from PingKit's servers and alerts your iPhone when the host stops answering: one website free, checked every hour, or up to 10 websites or servers every 5 minutes with Guardian. If your list is already full for your plan, Watch this host opens Uptime Watch on that list.
A host on your own network is different. Uptime Watch checks from the internet, so it cannot reach an address inside your home; for one of those, the sheet says so and offers to open the Mac Agent, which can alert you when a device at home goes offline while your Mac is awake.
Traceroute in Plain Words
Under the hop list, Traceroute on iPhone explains the route it found in plain words. First, your own network: the first hop on a home address is most likely your router, so its time says whether your Wi-Fi and home network are quick, usual or slow, and a slow reading may be the Wi-Fi signal rather than the router itself. Next, the largest jump in time along the route, with the countries on either side when it crosses a border, where the jump may come from that distance. Last, the total time to the destination, or to the last hop that answered. PingKit works these out on your iPhone from the hops themselves, without AI, on every plan.
Game Services
Under the host field, Ping and Traceroute have a Game services menu of hosts to try, such as ea.com, xbox.com, steampowered.com and battle.net. Choosing one fills the field and starts nothing until you tap. Each is the service's website, which may answer from a server near you rather than from the game's own servers, and the app says so beside the one you chose.
Session Watch
Under its grade, Session Watch says what it measured: a general internet address, or a cloud data center in the region you chose, not your game's own server, so the route to your game may be faster or slower. When a session finishes, Trace the route to your game opens Traceroute with the Game services menu ready. With Guardian, Middle East (UAE) is one of the regions Session Watch can measure against.
Networks Told Apart in History
Two networks can share a router address, such as a home and an office that both use 192.168.1.1. After a device scan, History on iPhone tells them apart by the devices each scan finds, and keeps each network's history on its own. In the list of networks PingKit remembers, you can rename a network, free on every plan, just as you can forget one.
An optional switch, Use the Wi-Fi name to tell networks apart, also uses the Wi-Fi name. It stays off until you turn it on. iOS shares the Wi-Fi name only with apps allowed to use your location, so PingKit asks for that permission when you turn the switch on and at no other time. The name is read on your iPhone and never leaves it.
More Kinds of Device Recognized
Devices, in PingKit on iPhone and in PingKit Agent on the Mac, recognizes many more kinds of device on your network, including robot vacuums, thermostats, appliances, EV chargers and solar inverters. It reads the maker, the name the device gives itself and what the device announces over HomeKit, Matter and UPnP. When the only clue is a maker whose chips are found in many different products, Devices shows IoT rather than a guess.
The maker comes from the device's hardware (MAC) address. On iPhone that address is available on iOS 27 and later, and a device that uses a private, randomised address shows no maker.
On the Mac, a device that sleeps while a HomePod or Apple TV answers for it keeps its one row in Devices, without a New Device alert at every scan.
IPv6 Across the Tools
- Ping. On iPhone, an IP version choice of Automatic, IPv4 or IPv6 picks which of a host's addresses to ping; Automatic is the default. A host with no address in the version you chose says so. Ping shows a TTL for IPv4 replies only.
- DNS lookups. On iPhone and Mac, AAAA answers appear in the short standard form, such as 2001:4860:4860::8888.
- HTTP and SSL tools. On iPhone, the HTTP Analyzer and the SSL Inspector take an IPv6 address as you type it, with or without brackets.
- IP Geolocation. IP Geolocation on iPhone locates an IPv6 address, and a name that has only IPv6 addresses.
- Your public addresses. My Network on iPhone and on the Mac lists your public IPv4 and public IPv6 address side by side, with "Not available" for a version your connection does not have.
- Every interface address. On iPhone, Network Info lists every IPv6 address of each interface with its prefix length and its kind, such as link-local or global.
- Live Connection. On iPhone, Live Connection offers a Google DNS (IPv6) target beside the IPv4 ones, so you can measure the IPv6 path of your connection on its own. The default target is 8.8.8.8, which measures your internet connection rather than your Wi-Fi alone.
Your Mac's History, Kept for 90 Days
With Guardian or Guardian Plus, PingKit Agent keeps 90 days of your Mac's alerts and timeline on the Mac, along with its latency and speed test history; without a subscription it keeps 30 days. It keeps what it records from the day you update, so the full 90 days builds up over the weeks that follow. PingKit Agent records while your Mac is awake and pauses while it sleeps.
On iPhone, the Mac Agent's Timeline reaches back through the same 90 days: it opens on the newest events and loads older ones as you scroll down. Your iPhone shows what your Mac recorded and synced through iCloud; the watching itself happens on the Mac. Seeing your Mac on your iPhone is part of Guardian, and what PingKit Agent watches on your Mac while it is awake has the detail.
AI Answers in Your Language
Three AIs can answer Explain This Result on iPhone: Apple Intelligence on your iPhone, Apple Private Cloud Compute with Guardian, and PingKit's own service. Each is asked to write in the language your iPhone uses, Traditional Chinese included, in Traditional characters. With Guardian, an answer from your iPhone that comes back clearly in another language is passed over and the next one answers. Without a subscription, the answer from your iPhone is shown as it is, so it never spends one of your free AI answers.
A Speed Test explanation keeps to what each reading means and quotes the number with its unit. A healthy result draws no next step, and an upload slower than the download reads as normal, because that is how most internet plans are sold.
A slow answer does not hold up the question. Apple's steps share one time limit, so when one is slow the question goes on to PingKit's service rather than waiting through each step in turn. In PingKit on iPhone and in PingKit Agent, a question to PingKit's service that stalls on the way, after a network change for example, is sent once more over a fresh connection and counts once.
Smaller Things
- Addresses in number order. A device list sorted by IP address, on iPhone or in PingKit Agent, puts 192.168.1.9 before 192.168.1.10, with IPv6 addresses after the IPv4 ones; the cameras a Security Scan lists follow the same order.
- Onboarding. In the welcome screens on iPhone and Mac, each tap turns one page, however quickly you tap.
- Notifications. PingKit on iPhone asks for permission to send notifications when you set up something that alerts you, such as your first Uptime Watch website, your first Cert Monitor domain or pairing your Mac.
- Ping with no reply. When nothing answers a ping on iPhone, its Min, Avg and Max read "No reply" rather than a time.
- Widget gallery. The widget gallery in PingKit on iPhone shows each widget as it looks on your Home Screen and Lock Screen, at its size on your iPhone.
- Large text. In PingKit on iPhone, Ping and Security Scan results fit the largest text sizes. Ping's controls and results scroll as one list, so every result stays in reach, and the Security Scan's counts and its network and router cards stack one item to a line, so no word breaks in the middle.
- Expired certificates. Cert Monitor, in PingKit on iPhone and in PingKit Agent on the Mac, shows a certificate whose expiry date has passed as Expired.
- Your language. Live Connection's target names, Custom included, appear in your language.
- Router advice and Cert Monitor messages. The Security Scan's advice for your router, such as the settings to check and how to update its firmware, appears in your language in PingKit on iPhone and in PingKit Agent on the Mac; menu paths keep the names your router's own pages use. In PingKit Agent, Cert Monitor's messages when it cannot add a domain, such as an invalid hostname, appear in your language too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need Guardian to share a card?
No. Share as Image works on every plan, free included: on iPhone for the traceroute route, the Session Watch grade and the Security Scan score, and in PingKit Agent on the Mac for the Security Scan score.
What does a share card leave out?
Your Wi-Fi network name, your public IP address, hardware (MAC) addresses and any device name you typed. A hop inside your own network shows its address only, and the Security Scan card shows the score and the counts, not the findings.
Can Watch this host watch a device on my home network?
Not from Uptime Watch, which checks from the internet and cannot reach an address inside your home. For a host on your own network, Uptime Watch offers to open the Mac Agent instead, which can alert you when a device at home goes offline while your Mac is awake.
Why does PingKit ask for my location when I turn on the Wi-Fi name switch?
iOS shares the Wi-Fi name only with apps allowed to use your location. PingKit asks for that permission when you turn on Use the Wi-Fi name to tell networks apart, and at no other time. The name is read on your iPhone and never leaves it, and with the switch off, History tells networks apart by their router and the devices a scan finds.
Does my iPhone record the 90 days itself?
No. PingKit Agent records on your Mac while it is awake and keeps 90 days with Guardian; your iPhone reads that history through iCloud and shows it. PingKit on iPhone does not watch your network in the background.
Update PingKit, or try it on your own network.
You can use the device scan and 19 network tools on iPhone free, and device discovery in PingKit Agent on a Mac is free too. Every Guardian and Guardian Plus plan starts with a 1-week free trial for new subscribers.
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