Apple services

*.smoot.apple.com

Hosts under smoot.apple.com run Apple's search services. Apple lists them for Siri, Spotlight, Lookup, Safari, News, Messages and Music.

Run by ApplePorts: 443 TCPChecked: 1 November 2026

Short answer

Apple's search services, for suggestions in Siri, Spotlight, Look Up, Safari, News, Messages and Music.

Safe to block

Safe to block if you don't want web suggestions. Local search keeps working. Turning suggestions off in settings is cleaner.

Matches
*.smoot.apple.com

A name with *. covers every name under it: *.push.apple.com matches 1-courier.push.apple.com.

What it serves

Apple's enterprise host list names *.smoot.apple.com in its Apple Intelligence, Siri, and Search section, for “Search services”.

On a Mac, parsecd manages Siri, Spotlight and Safari suggestions and Look Up, so most of its search traffic goes here.

Apple says that it may use your IP address to approximate a region for search suggestions, even with Location Services off.

Processes that use it

parsecdPart of macOS. It handles Siri, Spotlight and Safari suggestions and Look Up, so it connects to Apple while you search or type.Process →assistantdPart of macOS. It is the Siri daemon, so Siri requests and dictation that need Apple's servers can show under it.Process →

What breaks if you block it

Safe to block

Safe to block if you don't want web suggestions. Local search keeps working. Turning suggestions off in settings is cleaner.

What breaks if you block it

  • Siri, Spotlight and Safari suggestions from the web stop.
  • Look Up and search in News, Messages and Music may fail.

With Kilobat Pro and the network filter, you can block a host for every app or for one app: in Connections, select a connection and choose Block. Apple’s own services are never blocked by Kilobat’s Protection lists.

Apple’s rules for its hosts

Apple’s list, Use Apple products on enterprise networks, says that devices open these connections, not Apple’s servers. Apple services fail any connection that uses HTTPS interception, so a proxy that inspects TLS should leave Apple’s hosts alone.

If a firewall allows hosts by name, allowing *.apple.com covers most Apple services, Apple says. A firewall that works only with addresses can allow 17.0.0.0/8 for IPv4, and 2403:300::/32, 2620:149::/32 and 2a01:b740::/32 for IPv6.

To see which app on your Mac opened a connection to this host, use Kilobat’s Connections tab, or the agent network log for AI agents.

Sources

Checked on 1 November 2026.