Apple's $299 HomeView Puts Siri AI on a Screen for Your Kitchen

Apple announced HomeView on Tuesday, a $299 smart home hub with a 7-inch screen, built around Siri AI, the rebuilt Siri that arrived in beta on iPhones with iOS 27 last month.

It ships November 13 in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore and South Africa. Pre-orders opened Tuesday in most of those countries, Singapore's open Thursday, and South Africa sells it through Apple's authorized resellers.

Apple's launch video gives the quickest feel for how it's meant to sit in a home:

What you get for $299, and the two models to pick from

There are two versions at the same price. The tabletop HomeView puts the screen on a hinge above a round speaker base, so you can tilt it toward you on a counter or nightstand, and it comes in silver, starlight, rose pink and space gray.

The wall-mounted HomeView has the same screen and features but less powerful speakers, with no woofer in a base. It hangs on one of three mounts from Schneider Home that you buy separately: $59.95 for one that plugs into a USB-C wall outlet, $79.95 for one wired into your home's power, and $129.95 for one powered by a network cable, which arrives in early 2027.

The screen changes with distance, showing big simple information from across the room and more detail as you walk up. It plays Apple Music, podcasts and Apple TV, makes FaceTime calls, and works as a photo frame for a shared album.

That same-price wall model has annoyed a lot of people reacting to the launch, since it has weaker speakers and still needs a paid mount. Many had also expected the tabletop one to cost more than $299.

How it shows your stuff only to you

HomeView recognizes up to six people by face, and each one gets their own Home Screen with their own apps and widgets. Shared things like a family photo album and music are open to everyone in the house, guests included.

Your Messages and Calendar only show up when two things are true. HomeView has to recognize your face, and your paired iPhone or iPad has to be nearby and recently unlocked, so a roommate standing in front of it won't see your texts.

Apple says the camera and microphone data is handled in a sealed-off part of the chip that the HomeView software, apps and Apple itself can't read. That hasn't settled the nerves for everyone, and more cameras and microphones in the house is one of the most common worries people raised about the launch.

What Siri AI can do on it, and what needs your iPhone

Anyone in the house can ask Siri AI questions, hold a back-and-forth conversation, and ask about what's on the screen. You can run your lights, locks, thermostat, blinds and cameras by voice or touch, and the home camera view can show up to nine feeds at once.

In the kitchen, HomeView turns a recipe from the web into step-by-step instructions you follow hands-free, with timers you set by voice and help keeping track of ingredients.

The personal stuff depends on your phone. Siri AI can only act across your apps and pull from your Messages and Calendar if you have an iPhone or iPad that supports Apple Intelligence.

You need an iPhone or iPad just to set HomeView up, so it isn't a device for an Android household. Without a recent iPhone, Siri AI on it still answers general questions and holds a conversation, as MacRumors laid out, and Siri AI on it works in English at launch.

A conversation you start on HomeView carries over to the Siri app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, so you can ask about a recipe at the counter and pick it back up on your phone at the store. Apple says requests run either on the device or on its own private servers, where the data isn't stored or made available to Apple.

If you want something to try on day one, these are the kinds of asks Apple built it for:

Find the recipe I was looking at for butternut squash soup and walk me through it one step at a time. Start a timer whenever a step says to wait.

What's on my calendar this weekend, and is anything at the same time as Maya's soccer game?

The fine print on Siri AI's beta and daily limits

Siri AI is still a beta on HomeView, the same as on the iPhone, which means Apple is still finishing it and some answers and features may not work as well as they will later. Apple's footnote says features that run on its servers "are subject to daily usage limits," and that "expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future."

Apple hasn't said what that fee will be or when it starts.

HomeView isn't sold in the European Union at all, because Siri AI isn't available on iOS there yet. Apple says it's working with the EU to find a way forward.

The cheaper HomePod mini 2 doesn't get Siri AI yet

Apple also showed a HomePod mini 2 for $149, up from $129, shipping October 30. It can tell up to six people apart by voice, but Siri AI only comes to it "in a future software update," which Apple confirmed to 9to5Mac.

The new Apple TV 4K costs $299, up from $199, and ships November 13 with microphones built in, so you can talk to it without picking up the remote. Siri AI there answers questions about what you're watching, like "Is this appropriate for a 15-year-old?", and it's also coming in beta to older Apple TV 4K boxes, back to the 2nd generation, as long as the home's owner has a recent iPhone.

Apple's new Home Collection, LG cameras, a doorbell and a deadbolt that unlocks as you walk up with your iPhone, plus a Schneider thermostat, starts arriving in December. Camera video saves to your iCloud+ plan, so there's no separate camera subscription.

This feels like Apple slowly working its way toward a personal agent in a very Apple way: really nice hardware first.

Ironically, for a company that good at hardware, Apple still hasn't figured out the software, since Siri has been kind of useless for years and Siri AI is still in beta. Back in June, Apple's preview of the smarter Siri barely got a reaction.

Meanwhile, the agents doing real jobs for people today, like OpenAI's Dots, run on a phone or a computer, and a lot of people looking at HomeView still can't name something it does that their phone or TV doesn't already.

I put three of those personal agents through the same jobs in my last comparison, and that's the bar Siri AI is going to get measured against:

Sources

• Apple Newsroom: Meet Apple HomeView
• Apple Newsroom: Siri AI, a more capable and personal assistant
• Apple Newsroom: The next generation of HomePod mini
• Apple Newsroom: The new Apple TV 4K
• Apple Newsroom: Introducing Apple Home Collection
• CNBC: Apple HomeView smart home hub
• MacRumors: HomeView needs an iPhone for some AI features
• 9to5Mac: HomePod mini 2 won't have Siri AI at launch