Apple has stepped into the smart display market with HomeView, a 7-inch device that combines entertainment, communication and smart home control, and runs on the new Siri AI.
The pitch is simple: one screen everyone in the house can use, that still feels personal. “Apple HomeView is designed to be shared by everyone in the home yet feel completely personal to each user,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
One device, six people
HomeView recognises up to six household members by face. Each gets their own Home Screen, and personal content — Messages, Calendar, Reminders, FaceTime and Find My — only appears for the person standing in front of it. Shared photo albums and music stay open to everyone, guests included.
The display adapts to distance, showing simple information from across the room and more detail up close. Customisable “faces” turn it into a photo frame, a Snoopy screen or a live wall of up to nine home camera feeds.
Built for sound and the smart home
The aluminium screen sits on a domed speaker base with a stainless steel hinge for tilting. Inside are two full-range drivers, a down-firing woofer and two passive radiators, with Spatial Audio support. It plays Apple Music, Podcasts, TV and third-party apps, and joins multiroom setups with HomePod.
For the home, it controls lights, locks, thermostats, blinds and cameras through HomeKit and Matter accessories. It can also listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send alerts to your iPhone. A recipe assistant turns web recipes into step-by-step, hands-free instructions.
Privacy front and centre
Camera and microphone data is processed in Secure Exclaves on the A18 chip, which Apple says can’t be accessed by apps, the user or Apple itself. Siri requests run on-device or through Private Cloud Compute.
Price and availability
HomeView costs $299 in tabletop or wall-mounted versions, in silver, starlight, rose pink and space gray (the wall model comes in space gray and silver). Pre-orders opened on 13 October in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India, with Singapore following on 15 October. Sales start on 13 November.
There’s one notable gap: HomeView won’t be sold in the EU, as Siri AI isn’t yet available there. Apple says it’s working with the EU on a solution.
Apple also announced its Home Collection of cameras, thermostats and a lock, built with LG and Schneider Electric, alongside a new HomePod mini and an updated Apple TV 4K.
