Apple plans HomeView smart home hub for November release
Apple's long-anticipated smart home hub has been named "HomeView" and will debut at the company's "Welcome home" event on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg. The device will serve as a Siri voice command centre for Apple's smart home ecosystem, shipping in mid-November alongside partnerships with LG and Schneider Electric to expand the Home Collection's accessory range.
The HomeView will be available in countertop and wall-mounted versions, with the countertop model offered in space gray, silver, starlight and pink, whilst the wall-mounted version comes only in space gray and silver. The hub will have limited app support with no App Store access; instead, users will control smart home devices through Siri, the Home app or directly connected accessories. Apple is simultaneously releasing a refreshed HomePod mini with the S10 chip and a new Apple TV with the A19 chip on 30 October, with the HomeView following in mid-November and LG's third-party products arriving later in the year.
- Apple unveils HomeView smart home hub, shipping mid-November.
- Voice-first design available in countertop and wall-mounted versions.
- Partnerships with LG and Schneider Electric expand the Home Collection.
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Apple has long sold individual smart home devices and apps to control them, but lacked a dedicated hub – a central device that manages all these products and responds to voice commands. HomeView is the company's new smart home hub, designed to centralise control of compatible devices through voice and the Home app. Smart home hubs matter because they allow users to manage multiple devices from different manufacturers through one system rather than switching between separate apps.
The device will come in both countertop and wall-mounted versions, with various colour options for each. Users will control smart home devices primarily through voice commands to Siri or through the Home app. This creates a unified interface where users manage their entire setup from one place, rather than downloading separate apps for each device brand.
Apple is partnering with manufacturers including LG and Schneider Electric to ensure a range of compatible products are available. In the smart home market, no single company manufactures all the products people want, so these partnerships are essential for making a hub valuable to consumers. The hub's usefulness will depend on how many different devices can connect to it and how smoothly they work together.
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Originally published by Engadget as “Apple’s smart home hub will reportedly be called HomeView”.