Code buried in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 update reveals that Apple’s forthcoming home hub will recognize individual household members using cameras and sensors, automatically switching to each person’s personal profile without requiring them to tap anything.
The discovery, pulled from software strings in the update, shows the device using what Apple calls “ambient sensing” to verify who is standing in front of it.
Once identified, the hub surfaces that person’s personal content, including calendar entries, reminders, and other account-specific information.
If the device cannot identify who is nearby, it prompts the person to step in front of the camera directly or manually select themselves through Control Center.
How profile switching works
Several of the code strings spell out specific scenarios the hub is designed to handle. One reads: “Sorry, since this device hasn’t seen you in a while, you’ll need to ask again in front of the camera.”
Another says: “To access your Personal Content, you’ll need to select yourself in Control Center and temporarily allow ambient sensing to verify your identity.” Users who haven’t enabled the feature are prompted to open the Settings app to do so.
Manual profile selection will also be available through Control Center or Settings on the device itself. The hub is expected to run a tvOS-like operating system, so those interfaces will likely resemble the profile switcher already familiar to Apple TV users.
Two versions of the hub are in the works
The same code update also confirms the presence of two distinct hardware versions. One will be wall-mounted while the other will include a speaker base for tabletop placement.
Both are expected to feature a square, 7-inch display, a widget-based home screen with iPhone widget support, and Siri AI as a central feature.
Whether ambient sensing can be disabled for households where guests or children need simple, unrestricted access to smart home controls like lights is not clear from the code.
That question is already coming up among prospective buyers, some of whom want the hub to function as a shared control surface rather than a personalized device.
Apple retail stores are reportedly being reorganized this fall to make room for new home products, and the hub could be announced as early as September.
