Apple Unveils $299 Homeview Smart Display With Siri AI

Apple’s first smart display combines personalized Siri features, video calls and home controls in tabletop and wall-mounted versions arriving November 13.

Apple unveiled HomeView, a $299 smart display designed to bring Siri AI and connected-home controls into a shared household device. The seven-inch screen comes in tabletop and wall-mounted versions. According to TechCrunch and The Verge, preorders opened on October 13, with availability beginning November 13.

Table of Contents
  1. A screen for the home
  2. Personalized Siri and household access
  3. Apple’s wider smart-home push
  4. Sources

A screen for the home

HomeView can display calendars, photos and messages, handle FaceTime calls, play music and serve as a dashboard for connected devices. The Verge reports that it can show footage from HomeKit Secure Video cameras and works as both a Matter controller and a Thread Border Router. Engadget says users can also control lighting, thermostats and locks from the screen.

The tabletop model adds a speaker base beneath the display, while the wall-mounted version omits it. Engadget reports that the base contains a woofer and passive radiators to supplement two drivers in the screen. The display comes in silver, starlight, rose pink and space gray, according to TechCrunch.

Personalized Siri and household access

The device’s central feature is an interface that changes with the person using it. TechCrunch says HomeView can recognize up to six household members and show each person their own apps and information. Engadget reports that it uses facial and voice recognition, while Siri AI can draw on personal context from a user’s iPhone to interpret requests.

Because that information may include private messages and appointments, access has limits. Engadget says the display locks personal content when a recognized user walks away. WIRED reports that showing personal information also requires the user’s iPhone to be on the same Wi-Fi network and to have been recently unlocked. WIRED says an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone is needed for setup and that an iPad cannot be used to set up HomeView.

Engadget’s brief hands-on found the screen responsive during controlled demonstrations, but the outlet cautioned that longer testing is needed. It also demonstrated a Safari recipe view with ingredients, instructions and tappable timers; users can pass a recipe from an iPhone by holding it near the display.

Apple’s wider smart-home push

HomeView arrives alongside a collection of connected-home products developed with LG and Schneider Electric, according to Engadget. The reported lineup includes cameras, a doorbell, a lock and thermostats, though Engadget says Apple has not announced when the collection will be available.

TechCrunch frames HomeView as a more direct challenge to Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub. The services available on Apple’s display have limits, however: while TechCrunch lists watching videos among its uses, WIRED says major video-streaming apps are not currently available on HomeView and that videos can instead be watched through Safari.

Sources

This story was compiled by AI from the reports below. Read the originals for the full details.