Apple HomeView Brings Customizable Faces to the Smart Home
Apple HomeView is a new smart display that will arrive on November 13 for $299 in the United States. The product is built around a set of customizable faces, and Apple has named seven so far: Photos, Flow, Snoopy, Calendar, Weather, Home Modular and Home Camera. Both tabletop and wall-mounted versions will be available at launch.
A display that changes with the day
According to Apple, selected faces shift their appearance as the day progresses, with different looks for morning and evening. The screen itself is a 7-inch Liquid Retina display that can run at up to 500 nits of brightness and dim all the way to 0.3 nits for nighttime use. Promotional images also show other clock and widget layouts that Apple has not yet named.
The interface adapts to how close a person is to the display. From across a room, simpler information stays readable; moving closer reveals more detail. That behavior applies across the face options rather than to a single layout.
Photos, Flow and Snoopy
The Photos face turns the display into a digital frame. It can show a single or rotate through a collection, and it applies Portrait-style depth effects that keep the subject sharp while blurring the foreground and background. Shared albums let friends and family contribute images remotely.
Flow responds to physical presence and movement. As people move nearby, the face changes colors and light, making it the most reactive of the named options.
Snoopy animations are tied to context. The character’s behavior reflects the time of day, the weather, sporting events and holidays.
Smart home controls and camera feeds
Home Modular is designed for quick access to favorite accessories, putting common smart home controls within easy reach. Home Camera goes further, livestreaming as many as nine camera feeds at once.
Calendar and Weather round out the named faces. Each is intended to surface its information in a glanceable form, consistent with the distance-based interface.
Pricing and availability
- Launch date: November 13
- Price: $299 in the U.S.
- Models: tabletop and wall-mounted
- Display: 7-inch Liquid Retina, 500 nits maximum, 0.3 nits minimum
- Camera capacity: up to nine simultaneous feeds
Apple has not detailed the full list of unnamed layouts, the exact dimensions of either model, availability outside the U.S., internal specifications, operating system version, third-party app support, voice assistant capabilities, privacy features, power requirements or device weight.
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