Apple HomeView Is Here: The $299 Smart Home Hub Apple Spent Years Rumoring

After years of rumors under the placeholder name "HomePad," Apple's first dedicated smart home hub is real, it is called HomeView, and it goes on sale November 13 for $299. Apple announced it on October 13 at a "Welcome Home" press event in New York, alongside a new Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2.

The HomeView is a 7-inch smart display built around a 1,088 by 1,088 pixel Liquid Retina touchscreen with 500 nits of peak brightness and True Tone. Under the hood is Apple's A18 chip, the same silicon family as the iPhone 16, and the device is powered by Siri AI, Apple's next-generation assistant built on Apple Intelligence. Two versions exist: a tabletop model with a speaker base and domed aluminum design, and a wall-mountable version. Both cost $299.

Pre-orders are open now. The tabletop version comes in silver, starlight, rose pink, and space gray; the wall-mountable version is silver and space gray only, with Schneider Home wall mounts sold separately from $59.95.

A hub that knows who is looking at it

The HomeView's headline trick is multi-user recognition. The device identifies up to six household members by appearance and surfaces each person's own Home Screen, calendar, messages, and reminders, then reverts to a neutral shared display when nobody it recognizes is around. Shared photo albums and music stay visible to everyone; personal content stays private to the person it belongs to.

The interface also adapts to distance: glanceable widgets and large text from across the room, richer detail as you step closer. Watch faces include a Photos face, a motion-reactive Flow face, a Snoopy face that reflects context like time of day and weather, a Home Modular face for instant smart home controls, and a Home Camera face that can livestream up to nine camera feeds at once.

As a smart home dashboard, the HomeView supports Matter and Thread for broad accessory compatibility, controls lights, locks, and thermostats by touch or voice, can detect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm alerts and push alerts to your iPhone, and doubles as an intercom between rooms. It has a front FaceTime camera with Center Stage, and Apple pitches it as a kitchen sous chef that converts web recipes into step-by-step instructions with hands-free timers.

Audio comes from two full-range drivers in the display plus, on the tabletop model, a down-firing woofer and dual force-cancelling passive radiators, with Spatial Audio and computational tuning that adapts to the room.

Why Apple is doing this now

Apple has been conspicuously absent from the smart display category while Amazon's Echo Show and Google's Nest Hub matured. The HomeView arrives at a moment when Apple finally has the pieces to make a credible entry: a conversational Siri rebuilt on Apple Intelligence, on-device machine learning muscle in the A18, and the Apple Home Collection of cameras, thermostats, and locks it developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.

The bet is that Apple's differentiator is trust plus integration. Siri AI conversations sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro through iCloud, and can take action across apps using personal context from a paired iPhone. If the voice assistant actually works this time, the HomeView becomes the missing center of Apple's home story.

But that "if" is doing a lot of work. Apple has promised a transformed Siri before, most notably with Apple Intelligence's troubled 2024-2025 rollout. One product launch does not erase that history. Reviewers and early buyers will test Siri AI's real conversational ability against the Echo Show and Nest Hub, and Apple's claims about on-device privacy will get scrutinized the same way Amazon's Bee privacy claims just did.

The fine print worth knowing

A few caveats from the launch details. The HomeView is not available in the EU, at least at launch. Wall mounts are a separate purchase. The new Siri AI experience works best paired with an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone or iPad, so older-device owners get a thinner version of the pitch. And at $299, it sits at the premium end of smart displays, where Echo Show models routinely sell for less during holiday sales.

Apple reportedly has a second event planned around October 27, with Bloomberg's Mark Gurman pointing to a touchscreen MacBook Pro and an OLED iPad mini. The HomeView was deliberately given its own stage on October 13, which suggests Apple considers the home a flagship category now rather than an accessory business.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the Apple HomeView cost and when does it ship?

The Apple HomeView costs $299 in both tabletop and wall-mountable configurations. Pre-orders are open, and it ships on November 13, 2026. Wall mounts from Schneider Home are sold separately, starting at $59.95.

What does the Apple HomeView do?

It is a 7-inch smart display that acts as a smart home command center, controlling Matter and Thread accessories, livestreaming up to nine camera feeds, handling FaceTime and intercom, running a personalized Siri AI assistant for up to six recognized household members, and serving as a kitchen display for recipes and timers.

Is the Apple HomeView available in Europe?

Apple has said the HomeView is not available in the EU at launch. Availability may expand later, but no timeline has been announced.