Apple HomeView, the $299 home device Apple announced today, is a square 7-inch display that brings the household and the individual together on one screen. Its use cases are familiar ones. What Apple brings is simplicity and a better experience to the home, an environment where people have little patience for friction. Part of that simplicity comes from a UI that borrows heavily from Apple Watch.
Alongside HomeView, Apple announced Apple Home Collection, a lineup of cameras, a video doorbell, a door lock, thermostats and sensors designed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, as well as a new Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2.
A small screen with a clear job
Seeing HomeView in person in New York, the first thing that struck me was how small it is. The rumored images made it look far bigger. It is a square 7-inch screen on a domed speaker base, and it reads as a cross between Apple Watch and the iMac G4.
The form factor makes clear that Apple designed HomeView to sit apart from the devices people already use for consumption at home, such as iPhone, Mac, Apple TV and iPad. Its role is to give a view of the home and the people who live in it.
The household and the individual
HomeView brings together everyone who lives in the home through their Apple ID and iPhone. This is what I hoped Apple would deliver. The household, whether a family or roommates, shares photos, music and control of the home, and guests can join in. Each person also gets their own experience. HomeView recognizes up to six faces, and someone's messages or calendar only show up when that person is in front of it with their iPhone nearby, a sensible safeguard for a screen anyone in the house can walk up to.
Apple made a deliberate choice here, and it makes HomeView a smart home hub in a different form than many of us, me included, expected.
Apple Watch DNA
When the rumored images circulated, all I saw was a watch, and the final product confirms it. You swap faces on HomeView the way you do on your wrist, whether that is a photo album, an ambient art face or a grid of camera feeds, and widgets sit where complications would. The screen even adjusts how much it shows depending on how close you are standing. A lot of what Apple learned on Apple Watch carries over, the same pattern I wrote about with Apple Vision Pro.
Continuity of design does more than let Apple reuse what it has perfected. A familiar interface lowers the learning curve, which matters most for a device entering a new category, as HomeView does.
Built for privacy, priced for more than one
HomeView runs on Apple's A18 chip. Camera and microphone data is handled in Secure Exclaves, protected areas of the chip kept separate from the rest of the system, so neither apps nor Apple can access it. Siri AI requests are processed either on HomeView itself or in Private Cloud Compute, Apple's private cloud, where the data is not stored and is not accessible to Apple. The sound is great, especially for a device this compact.
The attention to detail shows in the use cases Apple demonstrated. In the kitchen, HomeView turns recipes from the web into step-by-step instructions, with the ingredients first and then each step. You advance with a swipe, or ask Siri to move forward when your hands are covered in dough.
HomeView can sit on a counter or go on the wall, as a separate model that uses mounts from Schneider Home. Both versions cost $299. At that price, Apple might be encouraging homes to own more than one: one by the bed, one in the kitchen. It adds to the Apple devices a household already owns with little risk of cannibalizing them.
Apple Home Collection, a first with LG and Schneider Electric
Apple Home Collection is a lineup of smart home accessories designed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, a first for Apple. LG covers cameras, a video doorbell, a smart lock, a thermostat and a sensor, and Schneider Home adds its own thermostat and room sensor, so buyers can pick the one that fits the energy setup they already have.
The Apple influence is visible in the design, the simplicity, and of course the privacy, since neither the partners nor Apple can see your Home data. Setup is a tap with your iPhone, with no extra app or account, and none of the engineering degree the smart home still seems to require. The details that stood out to me address frustrations people actually have with the smart home. Accessories update themselves when you change your Wi-Fi password, and the indoor camera physically tilts down and stops monitoring as soon as the first person gets home.
The lineup builds on Thread and on Matter, which Apple has supported for several years, with an Apple layer on top. I hope this helps other partners see where the opportunity in the home sits.
Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2
Apple TV 4K gets a solid update. Siri AI turns finding something to watch into a conversation, and you can ask questions about a show while it plays without leaving it. With far-field microphones built in, you no longer need the remote to talk to Siri.
HomePod mini 2 gets Siri AI later through a software update and, like HomeView, recognizes the different people in a household, in this case by their voice. It also gains Sound Glow, a light on top that moves with the music and takes its colors from the album art, a small touch that helps a speaker feel at home on a shelf.
The surround sound setup is where the simplicity shows. Four HomePod mini 2 speakers can now pair with Apple TV 4K, and they work out where they sit in the room and tune themselves, so people get a home theater without fiddling with settings. Anyone who has tried to calibrate a traditional surround system will appreciate that. HomePod (2nd generation) works in the same setup too.
Who it is for, and the real competition
HomeView speaks to two groups. The first is people deeply invested in both Apple products and the smart home. The second is Apple users who want a simple device and are less tech-savvy than most early adopters. Easy FaceTime and easy pairing of smart devices serve them well.
For Apple, that widens the connected home beyond early adopters. It also sets up the real competitive fight. Many iPhone users turned to Alexa for the home. HomeView's use cases are familiar, and a familiar, private device tied to the iPhone already in their pocket gives those users a reason to bring the home back to Apple.
The invite for today's event read "Welcome home," and the welcome was for Siri AI. HomeView, Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2 all bring Siri AI into the rooms where people spend their time, through far-field microphones, voice and face recognition, and a screen that shows answers at a glance. Apple Home Collection gives Siri more of the home to act on, from the front door to the thermostat. People have already been enjoying Siri AI on the go, through iPhone and Apple Watch. With this lineup, Apple is making Siri AI part of everyday life at home.