Apple’s Next Big Thing May Be a Full-Fledged Smart Home

If recent reports are to be believed, Apple’s long-term ambitions for Apple Intelligence go far beyond the iPhone and other devices that exist today. The company’s ultimate goal is to create a fully automated smart home, a concept once only dreamed of in the sci-fi movies and TV shows of yesteryear.

The first big step in fulfilling this dream is Apple’s calculated gamble on smartening up Siri. By all accounts, this isn’t just about improving the voice assistant’s knowledge, but rather turning it into the Star Trek-style voice interface that was the original home and promise of the 2011 iPhone 4S era.

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A more interactive and comprehensive Siri would form the foundation of a whole new lineup of smart home devices that rely on voice control as their primary means of interaction. Think of Siri as it exists on the HomePod today, but without all its foibles, and then imagine expanding that to a whole range of new Apple devices throughout your home.

Reports of Apple’s work on new devices like a screen-equipped HomePod and a wall-mounted home hub go back several years, but they gained new legs last fall when reliable sources pointed to a tangible hardware product that was slated for a 2025 release.

While we’re unlikely to see that this year, it’s not because the hardware isn’t ready. Insiders say that Apple already has employees testing the new home hub in their homes. Rather, it’s Siri that’s holding things up, as Apple wants this to be more than a glorified iPad that you poke at to control your home; the goal is for everything to be primarily controlled by voice, and Siri isn’t yet up to the task.

When Siri is finally ready for prime time, the home hub may be merely the tip of the iceberg. Apple plans to complement its hub with a whole new category of smart home devices that will form an entirely new “Apple Home” ecosystem.

There have already been sporadic reports of Apple working on everything from security cameras and doorbells to a tabletop robot — and some of those reports go back several years. Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is tying this all together in a new report that gives us a clearer idea of Apple’s plans for the home.

According to Gurman, Apple plans to build a new home ecosystem to differentiate itself in artificial intelligence, leveraging AI in ways that nobody else has done (yet).

Apple Inc. is plotting its artificial intelligence comeback with an ambitious slate of new devices, including robots, a lifelike version of Siri, a smart speaker with a display and home-security cameras.

Mark Gurman

Gurman, who first reported on the tabletop robot last year, says that device will be the “centerpiece” of Apple’s home AI strategy. However, since that’s not expected to arrive until 2027, at the earliest, Apple’s “smart speaker with a display” (presumably, the rumored home hub he’s spoken of before) will give users their first taste of Apple’s Home ecosystem.

At the core of both these devices will be a new “LLM Siri” with an entirely new brain. Code-named “Linwood,” it’s a version of Siri that’s basically being rebuilt from the ground up.

“The work we’ve done on this end-to-end revamp of Siri has given us the results we needed,” Apple’s software chief, Craig Federighi, reportedly told employees at an internal meeting earlier this month, adding that “this has put us in a position to not just deliver what we announced, but to deliver a much bigger upgrade than we envisioned.” He said that “there is no project people are taking more seriously.”

This will apparently be followed by an “Apple security system that can automate household functions,” powered by new battery-powered smart home cameras and the doorbell that we’ve already heard rumors about.

The [camera] device has facial recognition and infrared sensors to determine who is in a room. Apple believes users will place cameras throughout their home to help with automation. That could mean turning lights off when someone leaves a room or automatically playing music liked by a particular family member.

Mark Gurman

While the standard cameras might use AI-based facial recognition, similar to what Apple already offers as part of HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV), the doorbell camera might go a step further, incorporating sophisticated Face ID sensors to authenticate users, automatically unlocking and opening doors when an authorized person approaches.

Apple plans to develop a whole lineup of cameras and home security products, Gurman says. The goal is to compete with Amazon, Google, and Roku by capitalizing on customer loyalty, thereby selling more products as Apple fans choose to buy into the new ecosystem.

So far, Apple’s attempt to extend HomeKit into cameras has been limited to relying on third-party manufacturers to embrace HomeKit Secure Video. This works reasonably well for those who have invested in compatible cameras. For example, Logitech’s Circle View Doorbell is a pure HomeKit accessory that allows HomeKit to show a picture-in-picture overlay of the person at your front door or even have your HomePods announce their name if their face matches someone in your Photos library.

However, the problem is that this is one of the few devices available that ties so seamlessly into Apple’s Home app, and it’s likely that Apple has gotten tired of trying to woo third-party developers to join the HomeKit ecosystem, especially in a world where Matter has levelled the playing field. By building its own devices, it can incorporate features that other manufacturers aren’t as enthusiastic about, and it can do so while guaranteeing a much higher level of security and privacy.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]