After all the rumors, the Apple HomeView is official, and it finally turns the Home app into something that comes close to what Home Assistant users have been enjoying for years.
As the owner of a home full of HomeKit-compatible smart gear, you generally have to make do with the Home app. But for all the benefits of HomeKit, like security and privacy, the terrible Home app constantly undermines everything Apple has worked on.
As someone who has long lusted after professionally installed smart home setups with fancy hub displays, the Home app on an iPad just doesn't cut it. That has always led me to dabble with Home Assistant, if only to be able to build my own dashboard that looks and works like something from this decade.
But that also brings its own complications. Namely, having to run a Home Assistant server and configure all of my accessories to actually work. It's far from ideal.
This is all why I've been keen to see what Apple's home hub situation would be. Now, we know, and it's basically a HomePod mini with an oversized Apple Watch attached to it.
It wasn't what I'd have hoped for initially. But now I've seen it in action, and it turns out that a CarPlay head unit attached to a HomePod mini is exactly what the HomeView needed to be.
The walk-up solution
Any good smart home display or hub device needs to do one thing at its core. It needs to make it quick and easy to interact with a smart home, whether that's viewing cameras, opening blinds, or enabling an entire scene.
HomeView seems to have that whole thing locked down. Right out of the gate, widget-type buttons are ready to do common smart home things. Swiping from one screen to another opens up more smart home things, just ready to be done.
From what I've seen, everything's pretty surface-level. You won't come to a HomeView and be three menus deep and have to start backing out just to turn a light on. That's vital for a device like this.
Sure, Apple's HomeView ad makes it clear that it expects people to use Siri to do a ton of things. But this is still the same Siri that runs on the HomePod mini 2, and that display is there for a reason. It's there to be touched.
The HomeView's clear readiness for action is sure to be helped immeasurably by the way it recognizes people. The fact that it switches between profiles automatically is a game-changer, something no iPad and Home Assistant setup can match.
I feel that this is something that has flown under the radar somewhat, too. Apple has always seen the iPad as a single-user device, like an iPhone or an Apple Watch. HomeView is the opposite.
A single HomeView can become the center of the entire family's world. And, vitally for those who like their smart homes to be aesthetically pleasing, it will look great while it does it.
I was worried that the HomeView interface would just be the Home app, but on a new display. Instead, we're getting something that looks like it's been designed to look great as well as get the job done.
At rest, HomeView can display a variety of different things, much like an Apple Watch. There's a Home Screen of sorts, and various faces to choose from.
Photographers can use the HomeView as a digital photo frame to show off what the latest iPhones can do. Snoopy is even present, too.
Vitally, all of this just happens. There's no need to build any of these interfaces or views, something Home Assistant just can't match.
HomeView's usefulness will only grow from here on out. The more smart home accessories you add, the more HomeView will do.
Future software updates will no doubt bring new looks, new faces, and more Snoopy. And then there are apps, albeit some kind of bastardized CarPlay situation rather than an App Store.
I'm a big fan of Home Assistant, to be clear. But HomeView does what Apple does best by bringing some Cupertino flair to a problem many of us have.
HomeView finally gives us a proper, fun, great-looking way to interact with our smart homes. The fact that it also houses reminders, calendars, browses the web, and can make FaceTime calls is just a really big bonus.
