Users of the HomeView will see a lot of personalized content on the display if it recognizes you. However, it will rely on your other Apple devices to do that.

The HomeView is billed as the center of a smart home, but it will also try to be at the heart of the lives of its users. As well as dealing with FaceTime calls and playing music, it will be providing access to personal content for each of its users.

The device is capable of recognizing up to six people, Apple claims, with each getting their own personalized Home Screen. While personal content stays private, shared items like photo albums and music can be used by anyone in the household and their guests.

The list of personalized content includes:

  • Messages
  • FaceTime
  • Calendar
  • Reminders
  • Find My

This is all serviced by Siri AI, which also means it can use a user's personal context. However, that requires you to pair it with a device that supports Apple Intelligence, such as an iPhone or iPad.

Visual identification

To make sure that only the right user sees their information, the HomeView can do facial recognition. However, it is not Face ID, as it's using the Center Stage camera without depth sensing.

According to Apple representatives talking to John Gruber of Daring Fireball, the camera is only part of the recognition system. Just as rumored, the system relies on other factors than just what the camera sees, or for voice, hears.

Apple presumes that the home that the HomeView will be used in is a reasonably safe space to begin with since it is used in the home. That is why Apple felt it could do authentication without on-device biometrics.

For users to be recognized by the system, Apple said they need to have a registered personal device nearby that supports Apple Intelligence and Siri AI. That device needs to be on the Wi-Fi network and have been recently unlocked.

That does rule out the Apple Watch from being used for recognition purposes since it can be authenticated similarly by an iPhone.

In effect, while the HomeView won't do any proper biometric checks itself, it will rely on you having authenticated properly on your personal devices instead.