Apple’s HomeView, a $299 smart display for the kitchen counter or the wall, goes on sale Nov. 13 and can recognize up to six people by face. Pre-orders opened Oct. 13, the day Apple announced it, in the United States and several other markets. Each recognized household member gets a personal screen, so the same device can show one person’s calendar and another person’s messages.
HomeView is Apple’s most direct attempt yet at a screen-based home hub, a category where Amazon and Google already sell established products. Its pitch rests on three things: face-based personalization, Siri AI as the voice layer, and a privacy design that Apple says keeps camera and microphone data away from its own software.
Price, dates and where it ships
Apple’s HomeView announcement sets the price at $299 in the United States for both versions. The tabletop model comes in silver, starlight, rose pink or space gray; the wall-mounted model comes in space gray or silver. Pre-orders opened Oct. 13 and availability begins Nov. 13 in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Singapore pre-orders start Oct. 15, and South Africa is served through Apple Authorized Resellers starting Nov. 13.
Wall mounting is a separate purchase. Schneider Home sells Power Mount accessories starting at $59.95 for the USB-C wall connector and $79.95 for the AC wired version, both orderable now, plus a $129.95 Power over Ethernet mount due in early 2027. HomeView is not sold in the European Union: Apple says Siri AI is currently unavailable in iOS there and that it is working with the EU on a path forward.
Six faces, one display
Audio gets more engineering than the screen size suggests. Apple lists two custom full-range drivers in the display, a down-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators in the base, with Spatial Audio support. Screen brightness ranges from 500 nits down to 0.3 nits with True Tone. Apple also says the enclosure uses 100 percent recycled aluminum.
The hardware is a 7-inch Liquid Retina display on an aluminum body, joined by a stainless steel hinge to a domed speaker base and driven by Apple’s A18 chip. According to Apple, the interface simplifies when a person is far away and shows more detail as someone approaches. HomeView recognizes up to six people by face, and each gets a personal Home Screen with their own apps and widgets, plus access to Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders and Find My.
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said in the announcement that “Apple HomeView is designed to be shared by everyone in the home yet feel completely personal to each user.” Personal content has conditions attached: Messages and Calendar items appear only when the enrolled user is recognized and that person’s paired iPhone or iPad is nearby and recently unlocked. TechCrunch adds that Apple is pitching the device especially for kitchens, where someone can check a recipe or start a FaceTime call without picking up a phone.
Home controls, safety alerts and Secure Exclaves
As a hub, HomeView controls cameras, thermostats, lights, locks and blinds by touch or voice. With a supported iCloud+ subscription and compatible cameras it can recognize people, familiar faces, pets, packages and vehicles, and describe HomeKit Secure Video footage. It can also listen for smoke and carbon monoxide alarm sounds and send an alert. A Home Camera face can show up to nine live feeds at once.
On privacy, Apple says HomeView and the A18 chip include Secure Exclaves, which process camera and microphone data separately from the rest of the system. In Apple’s words, data processed there cannot be accessed by HomeView software, apps, the user or Apple itself. Siri requests can run on the device or on Private Cloud Compute, where Apple says data is not stored or made accessible. That is a company claim, and nothing in the announcement points to an outside audit.
Siri AI, the rollout and the catches
Siri AI, described by Apple as a new Siri with broad world knowledge, conversational ability and onscreen awareness, arrives in beta with HomeView software version 27.2, in English in the United States, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Using personal context requires a paired iPhone or iPad with Apple Intelligence turned on, and the expressive voices need newer devices with at least 12GB of memory. TechCrunch notes that reports attributed the device’s delays partly to problems with Siri AI.
The device is also narrower than the tablets it resembles. Mark Gurman’s Power On reporting, relayed by iClarified before launch, said HomeView would run a limited set of Apple apps and have no App Store. The companion cameras, lock and thermostats come from Apple’s separate Home Collection, which is due in December. DesignRush notes that footage from those cameras counts against an iCloud+ plan, and that a home with all four LG cameras needs at least the 200GB tier.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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