Apple Launches HomeView, Its First Smart Display for the Home

It’s finally here: the long-rumored Apple smart display, Apple HomeView. I got my first look at the device in New York City this week, and it’s terrific. HomeView places a small, lively display atop a speaker base for video calls, beautiful photo displays, and at-a-glance information from Apple.

It's finally here: Apple's long-rumored smart display, Apple HomeView, has arrived. I got my first look at the device in New York City this week, and it's fantastic. HomeView places a small, vibrant display on top of the speaker base for making video calls, displaying beautiful photos, and providing information at a glance with Apple's Siri AI voice assistant. The device's square shape makes it feel less imposing than larger smart displays like Google's Nest Hub Max or Amazon's Echo Show 11, and I can see it just fine on my kitchen table — though it might be a hair too big for my bedside table.

HomeView is Apple's new home motion hub. It costs $299 and comes with a new set of cameras, thermostats, and door locks designed for Apple Home. As a smart home hub, Matter controller and Thread Border Router, HomeView can coordinate this and other Apple Home and Matter smart home devices. It is available in eight countries at launch: US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and India. Pre-orders are open now and the devices will ship on November 13.

[Image: HomeView can sit on a table or counter and display customizable widgets.

The new smart display features Siri AI, which enables natural language voice interactions to ask general knowledge questions and smart control of home devices via voice and touch and receive information using personalized context from your text messages, calendar and emails. The personal context requires facial recognition and for your iPhone to be on the same network as your Apple Smart, so your kids can't look at your messages at breakfast.

HomeView can display neatly formatted recipes to follow while you cook, keep you center stage in FaceTime video calls, and show live feeds and videos from HomeKit Secure video cameras.

The HomeView's 7-inch square screen sits atop a surprisingly small aluminum speaker stand, which is attached by an adjustable stainless steel arm. It has no physical volume or power buttons and no cover for the 12-megapixel FaceTime camera, which Apple says is only used for video calls and facial recognition.

[Image: The Many Faces of HomeView.

The display offers a variety of customizable "faces" that look more like a large Apple Watch than a small iPad. In idle mode, HomeView can display photo faces, clocks, and Snoopy faces, or you can use a modular face to show widgets from your most-used apps, like your to-do list, world clock, and podcasts. The home widget screen offers controls for lights, climate, cameras, and other devices.

I haven't had a chance to try the device yet, but I've seen a demo that shows how swiping up from the device shows a familiar app grid with Apple's core apps — like Messages and Apple Music — all available.

Apple also showed off a video showing how it imagines a family of five using HomeView around the kitchen counter during the morning rush. From making a French toast recipe for breakfast to checking the day's calendar to taking a FaceTime call and asking it to find your lost keys, Apple envisions HomeView stepping in to help with common minor household crises.

The video shows the girl sending a text message to her secret boyfriend from HomeView, which the younger brother avoids trying to read because it shuts off when he can't see his face, and then everyone sees a live feed of said boyfriend coming to the front door. The most unrealistic part of the video is that no one is holding an iPhone.

I've always found smart displays to be a great option for controlling smart home devices without having to pull out your phone and open an app. Apple's vision for HomeView takes it to its natural conclusion: you don't have to take out your phone when you're at home, because it's all available in HomeView (well, at least all Apple apps). It's an iPhone for your home.

[Image: HomeView can be wall mounted, with POE option.

HomeView comes in four colors: Silver, Starlight, Rose Pink and Space Grey. It has two speaker drivers in the display, plus a woofer and two passive power-canceling radiators in the base for bass. Based on initial listening, the sound comes a few notches higher than the HomePod Mini but doesn't compete with the HomePod.

There's also a wall-mountable version without a speaker stand, which also costs $299 and has three mounting options: plug-in, in-wall power, and in-wall PoE. Apple says the sound is tuned for wall placement, but I couldn't hear it in action.

The screen is wrapped in an aluminum frame and has no physical buttons. The frame is dotted with just a speaker grille and microphone holes. It has a Liquid Retina display — which in Apple parlance usually means LCD, though the company hasn't specified — supports True Tone and ambient light adjustment, and can go up to 500 nits bright and 0.3 nits dim, which Apple says makes it usable as a bedside clock. The screen is large enough to be seen clearly from across the room, but doesn't adjust as you get closer. You tap widgets or use voice prompts to access various apps and controls.

While HomeView acts as an Apple Home Hub — enabling local control of supported devices, creating scenes and automations, and supporting HomeKit Secure Video — the device feels less like a centralized smart home controller and more like a way to use your iPhone less while you're at home.

HomeView supports a number of Apple's own apps, including Calendar, Reminders, Messages, and Music. Apple says it also works with third-party audio and video apps that support the CarPlay architecture. There are a few audio apps available, like Spotify and Audible, but no video apps yet.

[Image: You can receive conversations started with Siri AI in HomeView in the Siri AI app on iPhone. And vice versa.

Siri AI in HomeView is the same voice assistant as an upgraded version that arrived on the iPhone with iOS 27. It has no special smart screen features or home control features. Provides extensive global knowledge, personal context, and natural language understanding. I saw a demo where it accepted a chain of requests and preserved context throughout, such as adding an event to a calendar, then setting a reminder for the same day, and adding an item to a grocery list. However, chained requests for home devices are limited to certain types of devices - you can turn on the lights in the living room and bedroom, but not lock the front door and adjust the thermostat with a command.

Both desktop and wall units have the same features. Only the mount is different, but where they are placed probably determines how they are used. A HomeView on the kitchen counter is more suitable for content consumption, music and cooking, while a wall version is more suited to the role of a smart home control center.

In its showroom, Apple installed HomeView near the front door with an active smart home widget that allows touch control of locks, thermostats and lights. When someone rings the doorbell, they can push a live feed from the doorbell camera and display up to 9 live feeds from HomeKit Secure video cameras. When you tap on a widget, it becomes a full screen controller. I saw the thermostat controls and they were large and easy to use. I haven't been able to play with any other widget yet or try controlling it with voice commands

[Image: HomeView supports up to six profiles and uses facial recognition to switch between them so only you see your personal information.

A key feature of the HomeView software is smart switching, which allows the screen to be moved from a home device to a personal device. It uses facial recognition and the presence of your recently unlocked iPhone on your home Wi-Fi network to authenticate you. Once it knows who you are, it can show you your customized HomeView layout and, if you have an AI-powered iPhone, use the personal context to play the command mom texted you, or the song your friend sent you. Without identifying the user, Siri AI in HomeView can show the doorbell live feed, answer general questions, control some smart devices, display recipes, and play audio and video.

Apple allows the device to support up to six profiles, but each user must have an iPhone or iPad updated to the latest operating system. The microphone and camera data used for profile recognition is processed on a Secure Exclave running on the device's A18 chip, which Apple says cannot be accessed by the operating system and cannot be accessed by apps.

[Image: You can upload recipes from Safari on your iPhone to HomeView, and it will format them for you to follow while cooking.

My concern is how incessantly it switches between profiles and how limited it is when it doesn't recognize you - I've had many instances where I yell at Siri on my HomePod because it won't find my iPhone until I authenticate it to the iPhone I want. Some smart home controls, like viewing recordings or controlling security accessories, require an authenticated user, which I can see causing problems if it's too slow or if you want to do things without standing in front of the device.

Based on initial impressions, and without having HomeView in my hands yet, I think success here will depend on how much people actually want to use a shared device for personal interactions. The demos I saw were engaging and fun, and its deep integration with your iPhone makes it more usable than a device like the Amazon Echo Show, which has a similar profile feature but less personal information to offer.

However, all of the demos work well with the Siri AI on your iPhone, and the whole system seems to be precariously tied to said phone. Beyond personal context features, I haven't seen a compelling smart home use case that I haven't seen in competing smart displays. In classic Apple fashion, HomeView looks beautiful as well as intuitive, and if it can actually keep phones off the kitchen counter during mealtimes, it might just be its killer feature.