Is Apple making a rival to the Echo Show 15 and Google Nest Hub?

(Image credit: Apple)

published 19 January 2023

Until very recently you could use your iPad as a smart home hub, but Apple took that feature away in iPadOS 16. Now it seems we have an explanation: Apple is reportedly working on a low-end iPad-style device that's designed specifically as a smart home hub, rather like the Nest Home Hub or the Echo Show 15.

According to Bloomberg, this isn't a go-anywhere device: it's designed to be wall-mounted or stuck to your fridge with magnets. And it'll be more like a HomePod/Apple TV than an iPad, with a focus on home automation and entertainment.

What to expect from Apple's home hub

Bloomberg's describing something that sounds awfully similar to Facebook/Meta's ill-fated Portal, a smart screen where you can control your music, stream video, FaceTime your family and get status updates from your various smart home devices. Given that any iPad can already do those things, albeit with another device acting as the hub, that suggests Apple is working on something smaller with a lower price tag.

Can Apple succeed where Portal failed? I think it can. The biggest downside to Portal was its manufacturer: given Facebook's track record on privacy, the prospect of Mark Zuckerberg putting a camera and mic in your home was a step too far for many. Including me. And the first generation was half-baked, so by the time the second-generation model came out Portal had missed its moment. I doubt Apple would make the same mistakes.

Bloomberg has previously reported that Apple's home hub would be a cross between a HomePod and an Apple TV, and that Apple is also considering a product that would combine HomePod smart speaker, a FaceTime camera and an Apple TV in a single device. This hub doesn't appear to be that device, if such a thing even exists.

The home hub is reportedly planned for a 2024 release, and no product name has been revealed as yet. HomePad, anyone?

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).