Apple HomeView Brings Siri AI To The Smart Home For GBP 299

Apple has entered the smart display market with HomeView, a seven-inch screen built to be shared by a household but personalised for the person standing in front of it. Announced on October 13, the device combines FaceTime, music, home controls and the company’s new Siri AI. It starts at GBP 299 in the UK, with preorders open now and sales beginning November 13.

HomeView is Apple’s clearest attempt yet to make the Home app a place people actually visit throughout the day, rather than a control panel they occasionally open on an iPhone. The screen can sit on a counter on its tilting speaker base or be mounted on a wall. Both versions have the same seven-inch Liquid Retina display and the same UK starting price; the mounts for the wall version are sold separately.

Apple says HomeView can recognise up to six household members by face and switch to each person’s home screen. Shared photos and music remain available to the household, while personal information such as Messages and Calendar is shown only when the recognised user’s paired iPhone or iPad is nearby and has recently been unlocked. That distinction matters for a device intended to live in a kitchen or hallway: a convenient shared screen must not turn private messages into family notices.

A Center Stage camera supports FaceTime, while the screen can display recipes, timers, photos and live activities. HomeView also acts as a dashboard for compatible lights, thermostats, locks and cameras. Apple says its camera view can show as many as nine feeds simultaneously. Certain recognition and video-description functions require a supported iCloud+ plan and compatible cameras, so the headline features will not be available to every buyer out of the box.

The new Siri AI can answer broader questions and hold more natural conversations on HomeView. For requests that draw on a person’s messages, calendar or other app context, however, Apple requires a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad with the relevant software and language settings. Siri AI on HomeView is in beta in software version 27.2. Apple’s own footnotes also say some server-based AI features have daily limits and that expanded access will carry a fee later. Those conditions deserve attention alongside the launch demonstration.

Apple says camera and microphone data are handled in protected areas of its A18 chip, and that requests may be processed on-device or through Private Cloud Compute. These are the company’s privacy claims, not a substitute for households deciding where a camera-equipped, face-recognising screen belongs. HomeView’s appeal will depend as much on trust and dependable everyday controls as on the novelty of a more talkative assistant.

Price and availability

HomeView and HomeView Wall Mounted each start at GBP 299 in the UK. Preorders opened on October 13, and availability begins November 13 in the UK, US, Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand. Singapore preorders begin October 15. In South Africa, Apple says both models will be sold through authorised resellers from November 13, although it has not supplied a local price in the UK announcement. The product is not being sold in the European Union at launch because Siri AI is not currently available there in iOS.

The launch sits alongside a new Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini 2 and a collection of cameras, thermostats and a lock designed with partners. TechBooky previously covered Apple’s EnergyKit work in the Home app; HomeView is the more visible consumer-facing step in that same effort to make Apple’s home ecosystem useful beyond voice commands. The question now is whether the software, accessory support and regional availability can make this GBP 299 screen a daily fixture rather than an expensive digital clock.