Apple’s new $299 HomeView smart home hub comes with a catch: you’ll need a compatible iPhone or iPad to use some of its most advanced Siri AI features, even though the device has its own A18 chip and supports Apple Intelligence.
The requirement means buyers without a recent Apple device won’t get the full Siri experience Apple is advertising for its first dedicated smart home hub.
HomeView’s best Siri features require another Apple device
HomeView can handle everyday Siri requests on its own, including answering general questions, holding natural conversations, and finding music.
But features that rely on personal information stored on your Apple devices work differently.
To ask Siri about a message, check personal calendar details, or perform actions across apps, you’ll need a paired iPhone or iPad that supports Apple Intelligence.
That device must also be running compatible software with Siri AI enabled and set to a supported language.
Without one, those personal-context features won’t work on HomeView, regardless of the hub’s built-in processing power.
Additional restrictions apply to customizing Siri’s voice. To adjust its expressiveness and speaking pace, you need a paired iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, or an iPad with an M4 chip or newer and at least 12GB of unified memory.
Those voice customization options are currently available only in English, and the settings automatically carry over to HomeView.
AI-powered security cameras have similar requirements
HomeView’s camera intelligence also depends on another compatible Apple device.
To use features such as AI-generated video summaries and natural-language searches of HomeKit Secure Video recordings, you must first configure them using an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad. An eligible iCloud+ subscription is also required.
That means households with older iPhones or iPads can still use HomeView for basic Siri requests and smart home controls, but they’ll miss out on some of its more useful AI capabilities.
HomeView goes on sale November 13 for $299, with tabletop and wall-mounted versions available at the same price. Apple hasn’t said whether it plans to remove these pairing requirements in a future update.
