A 7-inch square display on a tilting hinge, a 12MP Center Stage camera, and an A18 inside. That's Apple HomeView, the name a HomeView trademark filing surfaced four days early, announced October 13 with pre-orders open and shipping November 13. Matt Talks Tech's ten-point primer gets to the gate at point three: setup needs an iPhone or iPad, and Apple's spec sheet pins it to iOS 27.2 or iPadOS 27.2.
At a glance
| Available | November 13, pre-orders from October 13 |
|---|---|
| Setup needs | iPhone on iOS 27.2 or iPad on iPadOS 27.2 |
| Recognizes | Up to six people, by face |
| Camera feeds | Up to nine at once |
| Siri AI | Beta, in HomeView software 27.2 |
Before you order
- Two models, one screen. The tabletop HomeView sits on a domed base holding a down-firing woofer and two passive radiators; the wall-mounted model keeps the two full-range drivers in the display and drops the base.
- Check the box. The tabletop ships with a 1.5 m USB-C cable and a 30W adapter. The wall-mounted box holds the display and the paperwork; the mount, cable, and an adapter of at least 20W are separate, and the Power over Ethernet mount is due in early 2027.
- Personal context needs an Apple Intelligence iPhone. Siri AI answers general questions on its own; anything drawn from your Calendar or Messages needs a paired iPhone or iPad with Siri AI switched on.
- Not sold in the EU. Apple ties that to Siri AI's absence from iOS there, so iPhoners inside the EU wait with no date attached.
On the counter
- Six faces, six Home Screens. HomeView recognizes up to six people and switches to that person's apps and widgets; Messages and Calendar content shows only when the enrolled face is present and their iPhone or iPad is nearby and recently unlocked.
- Siri AI picks up the iPhone's thread. Conversations sync through iCloud, so a question started on the phone continues at the counter.
- Nine camera feeds. The Home Camera face streams up to nine at once, HomeKit and Matter accessories get touch and voice control, and the Apple Home Collection (cameras, thermostats, and a lock, with LG and Schneider Electric) follows in December.
- FaceTime with Center Stage. The 12MP camera reframes as you move, and since the hinge tilts rather than pans, the video notes, it tracks you only while you stay in front of it.
- Safari and the Apple apps. Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders, Find My, Music, Podcasts, Safari, and timers are built in. Third-party audio and video apps are "supported," with no names attached yet.
The A18 does privacy duty. Apple says Secure Exclaves on the chip wall off camera and microphone data from apps, users, and Apple itself, and Siri requests run on the device or in Private Cloud Compute. The video's shorthand that everything stays local overstates it: the cloud path exists, Apple just says it can't read what goes through it.
What to know
- The display is a 1088 by 1088 IPS panel at 220 ppi with True Tone, 500 nits at the top and 0.3 nits for the bedside.
- Memory isn't on Apple's sheet; Matt Talks Tech puts it at 8 GB.
- Server-side Siri AI features carry daily usage limits; Apple says expanded access will cost a fee in the future.
Whether a home with an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and HomePod needs a fifth Apple device is the question Matt Talks Tech puts to viewers. The per-face Home Screens are the one thing none of those four do, and that's the feature I'd judge it on once the beta label comes off Siri AI.
