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Apple’s next device might make your home a lot smarter
By Tim Biggs
An Apple-made smart display has been rumoured for many years and has the potential to bring features like Siri, Apple Intelligence and HomeKit off personal devices and into shared spaces at home. This week a report from Bloomberg suggested the device could be as close as four months away. So, how might it work?
More than likely, an Apple smart home display would be a bit different to an iPad you can stick on the wall. Amazon and Google have a history in smart displays, with the latter also creating software that can be used in third-party displays from the likes of Lenovo, so Apple has had ample time to observe what works and what doesn’t.
Amazon’s Echo Show devices allow smart home control and video calls.
The report suggests the device will be a square touchscreen about the size of two iPhones, with a range of Apple features built in but no App Store of its own, furnished with speakers, microphones and a camera.
If you think of an Echo Show or Nest Hub, but with an interface closer to what Apple uses in its StandBy mode for iPhone, you’re probably pretty close to the mark.
Apple’s current phones can act somewhat like a smart display when charging in landscape mode.
The idea will be to move certain functions of your phone to a more convenient spot in the home (or multiple spots if you have more than one Apple hub). You’ll be able to ask it questions or set reminders, make video calls, watch or listen to streaming media, view information like calendars and see live feeds from security cameras and doorbells.
The unit is also likely to be able to sense people’s presence to customise what’s on its screen, and help trigger smart home automations.
All of these functions are already available on existing smart displays, but Apple’s version will work much more seamlessly with other Apple devices and services. For example, Google’s Nest Hub makes for a fantastic photo frame when you’re not using it, but only if all your photos are backed up with the company. Apple’s hub would theoretically pull them from iCloud instead.
Nest Hubs connect you with Google services and can be used as digital photo frames.
Like Amazon’s stripped-back Echo Hub, the Apple device would also probably want to put your connected devices front and centre, so you could use it like a digital light-switch panel, a thermostat control or to monitor the status of your security system. This would add a lot of value to its HomeKit system, which can feel a bit less useful than Alexa or Google Home given you really need to interact with an iPhone for HomePod to access it.
As for its physical form, Bloomberg suggests it will be a simple screen with a range of accessories letting it fit in different spaces of the home. One could be a wall mount for a hallway, while another could be a stand for the kitchen. For a long time, the rumour had been that Apple’s display would sit on a rotating base so it could always face its user, like the Echo Show 10, or even on a robotic arm.
But it sounds like Apple may now leave that to a second, more advanced iteration.
For all its similarities to existing displays, a true advantage for Apple (besides integration with Apple services) could be AI. A screen on your bench or bedside could be a much more natural place to interact with Apple Intelligence than on your Mac and, with a recent chip inside the display, could handle plenty of queries locally without having to send anything to the cloud.
Of course such chips aren’t cheap, and current hubs start about $150, so Apple would probably be entering the market at the higher end.
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