🍎 Apple has announced the new HomeView smart home hub
🤖 It serves as your home base for all things HomeKit and Siri AI
✌️ There are two versions: one that sits on your counter and one that can mount to the wall
📆 Apple will launch it in mid-November
Apple has announced the HomeView, its very first smart home display, at its “Welcome home” event in New York City. The hub acts as a portal to all of your HomeKit and Siri-enabled devices, similar to Amazon’s Echo Show and the Google Home Hub. It’s powered by Siri AI and syncs across the Apple ecosystem, and it supports multiple users. It’s priced at $299 and is up for preorder starting today.
The HomeView carries a very familiar Apple-like design, one that’s very reminiscent of classic products like the iMac and iPhone 6S (at least with those colors). It features a 7-inch Liquid Retina display that seems to be the shape of a square, and it can reach up to 500 nits bright so you can clearly see it in a sunny room or against the wall. That’s the other thing: there are two versions of this product, with one on a speaker base and another you can mount to the wall.
The big draw to the HomeView is its ability to adapt the experience to multiple users. Apple built facial recognition into the device so when you walk up to it, all of your information syncs to it. That includes your calendar, photos, messages, music, and more. Apple says it supports up to six individual users, with each getting their own home screen, apps, and widgets when they walk up to it.
There’s a custom operating system on the HomeView which supports apps like Calendar, Music, Photos, Messages, and FaceTime, where the Center Stage webcam can keep you in the frame while you talk to your friends and family. Apple also says you can respond to messages via voice or an onscreen keyboard. There’s also intercom support for broadcasting messages to different rooms and devices in your home. You can also use Find My to track down lost items.
Of course, the HomeView is powered by Siri AI, Apple’s revamped version of the virtual assistant that supports personal context and natural language. When you pair your profile on a HomeView with a compatible iPhone or iPad, Apple says that Siri AI can remember conversations thanks to the Siri app. You can also do deep research and get rich visual responses right on the screen.
The HomeView is also your portal to all of the HomeKit-enabled devices you have in your home. Apple includes a simple, straightforward dashboard that lets you control all of them right from the display, or you can ask Siri to turn something on or off. Supported security cameras can use AI to recognize different faces or situations to alert you of activity at your home (so long as you have the right iCloud+ subscription, according to Apple).
Apple also worked with LG and Schneider Electric to build a whole suite of new smart home devices to help launch the next era of Apple’s smart home ambitions. Called the Apple Home Collection, you can outfit your entire home with HomeView-compatible devices to keep your doors locked, temperatures sensed, thermostats set, and your driveway watched.
Apple built in a bunch of different clock faces, including ones for the weather and your photo gallery. There’s also a couple of different Peanuts faces you can choose from, which I’ll immediately be setting up upon getting a HomeView for my apartment.
The entire system runs on an A18 chip and supports Spatial Audio, thanks to a down-firing woofer and twin force-cancelling passive radiators in the base. Apple says you can pair a HomeView with other speakers in its lineup, including full-fledged HomePods and HomePod minis, for even more powerful audio performance.
Apple will ship the HomeView in four colors: silver, starlight, rose pink, and space gray. It’ll retail for $299 and is up for preorder starting today. The wall mounted version is only available in space gray or silver, and it costs $299 as well. You’ll be able to buy both models starting on Friday, November 13.
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Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut and co-host of The Shortcut Live. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.