How Apple Can Win the Smart Home

This week, Apple is hosting its first dedicated smart home event. While the company is not revealing details of what will be shown at 'Welcome Home Experience' in New York City on Tuesday, October 13, you don't need an army of internet sleuths to infer that we will get news about Apple Home, in particular new hardware. […]

Posts in this thread will be added to your daily email digest and homepage feed.

New hardware could bring Apple back into contention, but software will determine whether it wins.

Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and home page feed.

The second generation of Apple HomePod. Photo by Chris Welch/The Verge

All the smart home news, reviews and gadgets you need to know

He is a senior referee with more than twenty years of experience. He covers smart homes, IoT and connected technologies and has previously written for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC and US News.

This week, Apple is hosting its first dedicated smart home event. While the company hasn't shared details about what it will reveal at its "Welcome Home Experience" in New York City on Tuesday, October 13, it doesn't take an army of netizens to conclude that we'll be getting news about the Apple Home — specifically, new hardware. It seems that Apple is finally taking the smart home seriously.

According to a Bloomberg report, Apple will launch a smart home display alongside the HomePod Mini and a refreshed Apple TV. The display, which MacRumors reports may be called HomeView, is arguably the first dedicated Apple Home hardware since the launch of the HomeKit platform in 2014. As exciting as this is (and I'll be there to check it out in person), the real change will be bringing Siri's AI and Apple's intelligence into the home. Apple is years behind Google and Amazon in smart home hardware, but success in the home depends much more on software. This is where Apple can outpace the competition.

What to expect from Apple's "Welcome Home" event

Apple makes your security camera smarter. What follows is more interesting.

Will a new CEO help realize Apple's smart home potential?

New home hardware is long overdue. Apple introduced the HomePod Mini on October 13, 2020, six years after this week's event, and the newest Apple TV 4K is now four years old. And these smart home devices are not exclusive. They are more content consuming tools and have an aspect of home automation. The new Smart Display is apparently designed to be the heart of Apple Home and represents a complete reboot of the ecosystem that Apple Home users have been asking for for years.

Smart displays like the Echo Show 8 can be used to view footage from home security cameras. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Toohey/The Verge

The smart display category has a bumpy history. Amazon and Google have released several generations of these touch-screen, voice-controlled smart speakers that can control smart home gadgets like lights and locks, pull up doorbell camera feeds, and make video calls. But this category has seen very little innovation and is best used as a digital photo frame.

According to the leaked information, Apple's product is not much different from what was released before. According to Bloomberg, it will have a 6-inch square display on a speaker stand or as a wall-mounted option, facial recognition to display your messages and personal calendar, a minimalist touchscreen interface to control locks and thermostats, and FaceTime and intercom calls. Nothing groundbreaking, except for the rumored price — $350, ugh. The difference should be in the software and the smart assistant that powers it.

Bloomberg reports that the smart display will launch with an all-new home operating system built on Siri AI. Generative artificial intelligence has given the smart home voice assistant a new lease of life, making it easier to talk to and expanding its capabilities. Until now, Apple's new Siri AI has been MIA from its HomePods and Apple TV. When you talk to them, old Siri responds in its original, practical way.

Apple's smart speakers: HomePod and HomePod Mini. Rumor has it that only the Mini will be updated to support Siri AI this week. Photo by Jennifer Pattison Toohey/The Verge

Apple is the latest of the Big Three to bring productive AI to its home assistant. Amazon and Google launched their own model last year, but Alexa Plus is just starting to get it right, and Gemini for Google Home, a stripped-down version of Gemini, has confusing capabilities. Now it's Apple's turn, and if the company can successfully integrate its awesome personal assistant on your iPhone with a great assistant for your home, it could be in for a hit.

This if very large. So far, each company has faced significant hurdles. A smarter assistant for the home Apple introduced Apple Intelligence in 2024, but Siri AI arrived last month. A version of Alexa Plus was announced in 2023 but didn't launch until 2025. Gemini for Home is still in an early access program and split into a weird hybrid model where its more powerful version, Gemini Live, is limited from interacting with Home.

These cautious approaches are related to the fact that the home is a large, complex, dirty and multi-user environment that is difficult to control. A mistake by an AI agent can have far more consequences than accidentally sending an email. Smart home systems are connected to critical infrastructure such as HVAC, locks, and security systems. Every home is different, with unique needs - there is no single plug-and-play solution.

Progress has been made in solving one of the smart home's biggest challenges: interoperability, with open standards like Matter and Thread promising to make it easier to set up and use a smart home. But these are protocols, not software. These are the platforms that should make the smart home work. This is where Apple might have an edge.

Four years ago, after helping found Matter, Apple rebuilt HomeKit's core architecture and revamped the Home app, laying a strong foundation. The move also allowed Apple Home to work with more devices from more manufacturers (previously limited to those willing to go through the often difficult HomeKit approval process).

The Apple Home app works on Apple devices.

However, a smart home isn't just about the things you put in it. It's about making them work together. This is where Siri's artificial intelligence and Apple's intelligence can play an important role. While Apple uses Gemini models to build its Siri AI, Google itself has been working to provide an engaging experience at home. Therefore, Apple's opportunity is running. Its more nuanced approach to third-party hardware has held it back, but it also means Apple arrives at this critical moment with less technical debt and a cleaner foundation for building AI-powered smart homes.

This will be the next step for the smart home. With reliable data and context, your home can know who's in it, where they are, and what they need, and activate by knowing the status of each device. For example, it can alert you that the oven is on and no one is home, suggest turning off the AC when a window is open, and direct messages and notifications to the room you're in.

A smart home is not just about the things you put in it. It's about making them work together

However, this is still a distant promise. Today, Apple Home has significant limitations: it doesn't support any kind of home appliance (no refrigerator, washing machine, or EV charger). It cannot control all the features of many types of devices. And its automation is limited compared to competitors (notably lacking in-app conditional programming options). All of this makes the Home app very easy to use, but extremely underpowered

With Siri's artificial intelligence, Apple can unlock many of these functions through voice instead of creating complex menu interfaces. You can just tell Siri what you want your smart home to do. Alexa Plus offers this with the ability to create routines using your voice. Gemini for Home lets you use natural language in your Home app chatbot to trigger automation. And many smart home companies are using artificial intelligence in their apps to reduce user interface complexity and make devices and features easier to use.

Apple's first smart display should make the smart home work properly

How the Google Pixel tablet killed the smart display

One big question remains: Do people really want a smart home? Many of us have spent years frustrated by systems that promise so much but routinely fail, spending weekends troubleshooting why our garage door won't open. The truly dedicated have turned to Home Assistant, a powerful platform that can do almost anything you want, if you're willing to do the work. But for most people, beyond a few solutions to specific problems, a smart home isn't worth it.

Apple can't build everything for the smart home, but it can make sure everything works with its platform.

To win the smart home and enter the category mainstream, Apple needs more than great hardware. It requires a superior software experience that makes the smart home easy to use. It should integrate seamlessly with third-party devices and provide a consistent and reliable experience, relying on local control wherever possible and ensuring that products just work.

Apple is reportedly working with LG and others to develop products for the "Apple Home Collection," which will add a layer of Apple polish to the smart home experience. While this may seem like a throwback to the walled garden days of HomeKit, Matter guarantees interoperability with other platforms. Apple can't build everything for the smart home, but it can make sure everything works with its platform.

Above all, Apple needs to redouble its commitment to privacy and data security, especially as it opens up the home for Apple's cloud-based capabilities. If Apple can pull off all of that, its long-awaited smart home display might justify its price tag. But the real test will be whether Siri can deliver on its smart home promise.

More at: All the smart home news, reviews and gadgets you need to know

Alexa Plus is better at running my home, but not ready to run my life

Apple and LG start building new smart home devices with a lock, doorbell and thermostat.