Meet HomeView, Apple's first smart display for your home
What's the story
Apple has officially introduced its first-ever smart display, the HomeView. The device features a small yet vibrant screen mounted on a speaker base. It is designed for video calls, photo displays, and quick information access with Apple's Siri AI voice assistant. The compact square design of HomeView makes it less bulky than other smart displays like Google's Nest Hub Max or Amazon's Echo Show 11.
Cost
Price and availability
The HomeView is priced at ₹39,900 and marks Apple's entry into the smart home market.
It launches along with a new range of cameras, thermostats, and a door lock for Apple Home.
The device can serve as a smart home hub, Matter controller, and Thread Border Router for other Apple Home and Matter devices.
It is available in eight countries including India, with pre-orders already open for November 13 shipping.
Feature highlights
Smart features and Siri AI
The HomeView comes with Siri AI for natural-language voice interactions, controlling smart home devices via voice and touch, and getting information from text messages, calendar, and emails.
It can display recipes for cooking, keep you connected on FaceTime video calls with Center Stage feature, and show live feeds from HomeKit Secure Video cameras.
The device comes in four colors: silver, starlight, rose pink, and space gray.
Tech specs
Audio experience and display quality
The HomeView features two speaker drivers in the display, a woofer, and two force-canceling passive radiators in the base for enhanced audio.
The sound quality is said to be better than that of the HomePod Mini but not as good as the original HomePod.
The device also has a Liquid Retina display with True Tone support and ambient light adjustment capabilities.
Software features
Supported apps and intelligent switching feature
The HomeView supports a number of Apple apps including Calendar, Reminders, Messages, and Music.
It also works with third-party audio and video apps that support the CarPlay architecture.
However, as of now only a few audio apps such as Spotify and Audible are available on the platform.
The device's key software feature is intelligent switching, which lets the screen switch from a household device to a personal one based on facial recognition.