Apple has spent years making products for just about every part of our lives. There's an iPhone in our pockets, an Apple Watch on our wrists, AirPods in our ears, Macs on our desks and an Apple TV in our living rooms. But for all its efforts with HomeKit and HomePod, Apple has never really had a defining smart home moment. Apple HomeView might finally be it.
I got an early look at Apple's new $299 smart home display ahead of its official announcement, and what struck is that HomeView doesn't feel like an iPad attached to a speaker or an oversized Apple Watch. Instead, it borrows some of the best ideas from across Apple's ecosystem and turns them into something that feels designed specifically for the home, built on a platform Apple is calling “HomeView Software.”
Sure, Amazon's Echo Show and Google's Nest Hub have been around for years, but HomeView is the most inventive new product for Apple users since the Vision Pro — only with a much more approachable price and a purpose that's considerably easier to imagine in everyday life.
Between its personalized interface, surprisingly clever cooking features and new Siri AI capabilities, I came away from the demonstration with a breakdown of these seven features that stand out most.
1. HomeView recognizes who's standing in front of it
Using facial and voice recognition, HomeView can identify up to six people in your household and adjust the information on its screen based on who’s interacting with the display accordingly. That means schedules, reminders and widgets on the home screen you're looking at can be different from what your partner sees when they approach the same device.
Apple is also drawing a distinction between accessible shared experiences, like controlling lights or playing music, and private information, like iMessages, Safari browsing and calendar events.
There's a security-related catch, though. To access personalized information, your iPhone needs to be home, connected to the same Wi-Fi network and has to have been recently unlocked.
2. Siri AI understands your personal context
We've heard plenty about how Apple is making Siri smarter with personal context, but Apple's demonstration gave me a more tangible example of what that means.
Imagine asking Siri to find a recipe that someone sent you in a text message. Instead of searching through your conversations, you can ask HomeView to find it using information from your iPhone.
The same intelligence can help with calendar requests, questions about everyday topics and other tasks that would typically send you reaching for your phone.
Apple says Siri requests are processed on HomeView’s A18 processor, while relevant personal context is retrieved from your iPhone (15 Pro or newer supporting Apple Intelligence.)
It's an interesting approach because your iPhone essentially remains the keeper of your personal information, even when you're interacting with another device, but only you can request the use of personal context.
3. It turns online recipes into a cooking experience
When I’ve used Amazon’s smart displays in the past, it's been, primarily, to follow recipes. Apple’s version of using a smart display into a sous chef relies on a new Safari sub-interface that translates internet recipes into organized, step-by-step instructions.
You can AirDrop a recipe from your iPhone or search for one directly using Safari, or using personal context, ask for a recipe sent to you in iMessage or Mail to be surfaced.
It even recognizes when a recipe calls for a timer and automatically presents one (that looks very similar to the Apple Watch’s timer) that you can start with a tap.
You can use Siri to move through the instructions, too.
As someone who regularly cooks with a recipe open on my phone or iPad, often propped against whatever happens to be nearby, this is the kind of feature I could actually imagine using several times a week.
4. HomeView doubles as a customizable digital photo frame
Apple has clearly borrowed some inspiration from the Apple Watch for HomeView's interface, particularly its customizable faces.
There are clock faces, modular layouts with widgets, a moving Flow face that reminded me of a lava lamp and even an animated Snoopy face.
The Photos face is especially appealing. You can display images of specific people, places or albums, including shared albums, and have them rotate throughout the day. As is the case for iPhone wallpapers, Portrait photos look particularly dynamic.
HomeView’s TrueTone display can adjust to the surrounding light, with brightness ranging from 500 nits all the way down to just 0.3 nits. That's the dimmest display it has ever engineered. That makes me think a HomeView makes as much sense for your nightstand as it does in those shared high-traffic areas of the house.
5. FaceTime hands-free with a 12MP Center Stage camera
HomeView has a 12MP Center Stage camera and a four-microphone array for hands-free FaceTime calls.
I can see this being particularly convenient in a kitchen, where you might want to chat with someone while preparing dinner, or in a living room where several family members want to join the same call.
You can also hand off FaceTime calls from your other Apple devices.
No, it's not an entirely new concept for smart displays, but the integration with Apple's existing FaceTime experience could make it especially useful for households that already rely on iPhones.
6. Your entire smart home gets a control center
Naturally, HomeView is also designed to manage your smart home. You can control compatible lights, locks, thermostats and other accessories, create widgets for devices in Apple's Home app, and view up to five security camera feeds simultaneously.
But Apple isn't just introducing a new way to control existing Matter-equipped accessories. It's also teaming up with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric on an entirely new lineup of products called the Apple Home Collection.
The collection includes indoor and outdoor security cameras, a video doorbell with two cameras for monitoring visitors and packages, smart thermostats, and a smart door lock that automatically unlocks when you approach with a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch via UWB.
7. There are two versions of HomeView hardware
When it comes to controlling smart home devices, an optimally-placed, wall-mounted control center tends to be a preferred interface. That’s why Apple is introducing two versions of HomeView hardware at the same price.
The tabletop HomeView comes with a speaker base featuring a down-firing woofer and two passive radiators, along with two full-range drivers in the tilting display itself. Apple demonstrated its music playback capabilities, including album artwork, lyrics and controls for managing speaker groups.
The wall-mounted model, meanwhile, has audio tuned for its placement and is particularly well-suited for smart home controls. It will offer three mounting options, including two in-wall solutions developed with Schneider Electric.
Apple HomeView: My early verdict
The more I saw of HomeView, the more I realized Apple is serious about giving its smart home ecosystem something it's been missing all along: a centerpiece.
What's particularly interesting is that HomeView doesn't seem to depend on having a house full of connected gadgets to be useful. Between FaceTime, recipes, music, photos and personalized information, there's plenty here for someone who hasn't invested much in smart home technology. And for those who have, HomeView could be the missing link that brings everything together.
There are still some important questions, particularly around how reliably Siri AI handles personal context and how limiting the lack of a traditional App Store in “HomeView Software” might be. But after witnessing HomeView in action, I'm considerably more interested in having one in my kitchen or on my nightstand than I expected to be.
Apple has spent years finding its way into nearly every corner of our lives. With HomeView, it might have finally figured out how to make the home itself feel like an Apple product.
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