HomePod with a screen: Apple’s Home Hub/smart display plans

There’s been a lot of interest in Apple’s plans for a HomePod with a display over the years and now it seems like the such a product could be coming, but expect more than a screen on a HomePod. Apple is said to have multiple new smart home related products on the horizon that will integrate smart displays and cameras and bring features from the HomePod and Apple TV together with a means to control smart home devices.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on one or more home devices with smart displays. As long ago as 2021 Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman was talking about how a future Apple TV and iPad might incorporate HomePod audio elements and represent a push into the smart home.  Over the subsequent years the rumoured products have evolved and multiplied, and AI, and associated Siri improvements, are now influencing Apple’s plans in this area.

Apple’s HomePod currently sufferers from its reliance on Siri to control it. With Siri not able to understand instructions as well as might be hoped, some HomePod users choose instead to interface with the device via an iPhone, but this can be a drain on the iPhone battery. Incorporating a screen would allow users to interface with the HomePod via its display. However, with Siri set to become more ‘intelligent’ thanks to Apple Intelligence, the need for this screen to interface with the devices may be reduced. What other plans could Apple have for a smart screen on a HomePod – or any other devices for that matter?

In this article, we will keep track of all the developments and rumors about these new HomeHub products, which could start arriving before the end of 2025. 

What are Apple’s HomeHub products?

In Gurman’s 2021 report he discussed two products:

A product that fuses the HomePod and Apple TV with a camera that could be used for video conferencing via the TV screen. (Think Google Nest Hub and Amazon Echo Show competitor.) This FaceTime Apple TV set-top box combo, was again rumored in January 2023.

A product that combines an iPad with a HomePod and a camera on a robotic arm that could follow the user around the room during a video chat. (Think Facebook Portal). According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in August 2024, this device, code-named J595, will use a thin robotic arm to control a large display, with actuators that allow it to spin 360 degrees or tilt up and down. Gurman’s sources say the device is envisioned as a “smart home command center, videoconferencing machine, and remote-controlled home security tool.” 

Since Gurman’s report in 2021 the following related products have also been referred to:

In January 2023 Gurman wrote again of Apple’s plans to take on the smart home market this time with a low-end iPad that will be used to control smart-home systems such as heating and lights and to make FaceTime video calls. This device, codenamed J490, will combine an iPad-like screen with smart-home controls to control smart-home systems such as heating and lights and make FaceTime video calls.

In the same report, Gurman claimed Apple also plans to launch a number of larger smart-home displays. Is the Apple Television not dead after all?

Evidence of Apple’s smart HomeHub project

It’s not clear if Apple has multiple new devices planned, or if there is some crossover with the above, however it is clear that Apple has teams involved with this project.  

In August 2024, it was reported that Apple has a team of several hundred people working on a new home device.

In July 2024, code was discovered referring to new a device identified as “HomeAccessory17,1.” This could relate to the HomePod, which Apple refers to as “AudioAccessory”. There were also references discovered to a variant of tvOS, similar to what the HomePod runs.

The tvOS 17.4 beta back in February 2024 also referenced a device codenamed Z314 that featured an A15 chip and ran tvOS. Both the HomePod and Apple TV already run tvOS. According to a 9to5Mac report, hangtracerd (which is used to debug unresponsive UIs) has also been added to the HomePod version of tvOS 17.4, a big indication that there will be a HomePod with a display – although tvOS 17.4 arrived without the accompaniment of a new HomePod.

In October 2023 ‘Kotsutami’ posted (in a since-deleted tweet) an image of what they claimed to be a prototype of the next HomePod with “different glass” for the display at the top (which could be used as a touchscreen).

An Engineering build HomePod frameshell with a completely different glass on top- it’s set for touchscreen, with black bezel
The design of shell is similar to HomePod 2nd gen’s, not the 1st gen—it stands  might decided add for 2’s but not at last, OR it’s next generation pic.twitter.com/W5zRIVGPiK

Kosutami (@KosutamiSan) October 21, 2023

At the time 9to5Mac claimed to have sources that verified Kotsutami’s pictures as legitimate. That site also reported that the codename of the HomePod is B720, and that Apple is using a version of tvOS with rewritten Apple Music and Podcasts apps that are suited to the display of the prototype HomePod which could show colors based on the album art while audio is playing, and show notifications.

In April 2022 Gurman referred to Apple’s plans, stating that Apple is “absolutely” still working on a new HomePod, which Gurman says will combine a HomePod, Apple TV, and FaceTime camera into a single “combination product will probably be at the center of Apple’s approach.”

HomePod with screen/HomeHub: Release date 

It’s thought that the devices will not be launched at the same time. 

J490, the iPad/smart display that can be used for FaceTime and controlling home appliances may arrive first. This could launch in 2025, according to Mark Gurman. 

However, the release date has been pushed back due to delays relating to Apple Intelligence and Siri in particular. In March 2025, Mark Gurman claimed that: “The company had hoped to announce a new smart hub product in March 2025, but because the device, to an extent, relies on the delayed Siri capabilities, it has been postponed as well.”

Apple Intelligence-powered Siri updates that were promised for iOS 18 have been delayed to later in 2025. Indeed, it’s possible these Siri features won’t be fully rolled out 2026, so we could be waiting that long for this HomeHub product. 

However, testing is underway, according to Gurman, with Apple said to have begun an internal testing program for the hub. The testing apparently involves members of Apple staff being permitted to take prototypes of the device home for testing and feedback.

Mark Gurman isn’t a loan voice in all this. Back in March 2023 Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote about Apple’s smart-home plans. He indicated that Apple “will unveil a redesigned HomePod featuring a 7-inch panel in 1H24,” and that this device “could enable tighter integration with Apple’s other hardware products.” At the time Kuo gave the expected release date for the HomePod with a screen as the first half of 2024 (which obviously didn’t happen).

Then in December 2024, Kuo indicated that the HomePod with screen won’t arrive until after WWDC 2025. He wrote on Medium: “The mass production schedule for the display-equipped HomePod has been delayed multiple times. Initially forecasted for 2024 (as I predicted in 2023), it was postponed to 1Q25, and more recently, further delayed to after WWDC 2025/3Q25.”

Kuo blamed software development for the delay in production, although he didn’t clarify why the software is taking longer than expected to develop.

However, in March 2025 Kuo tweeted that the HomePod with screen will be further delayed not just because of Apple Intelligence delays, but because it needs to align with other new Apple products.

J595, the iPad-like display with tabletop robotic limb is expected to arrive much later. 

HomePod with screen/HomeHub: Price 

The devices will have different capabilities and pricing. 

The price of J490 will depend on what it incorporates. If it’s a HomePod with screen, the price is likely be at the high end of the HomePod product line, so it could have a price of around $599.

J595, which combines an iPad-like display with a robotic limb and is intended to function as a smart home “command center,” could cost $1,000 or more, according to Gurman in September 2024.

HomePod with screen/HomeHub: Design

According to Ming-Chi Kuo in March 2023, Apple “will unveil a redesigned HomePod featuring a 7-inch panel” in 2024. That’s not much smaller than the iPad mini, which has an 8.3-inch display.

This tallies with what Gurman originally suggested in April 2021. He described a high-end speaker with a touch screen that would combine an iPad with a HomePod speaker and a camera mounted on a robotic arm that could follow the user around the room during a video chat. The screen would also offer multi-touch functionality. 

To get an idea of how this could look we need only look at the Amazon Echo Show 10, which combines a display that moves automatically with Amazon’s speaker. The Echo Show 10 costs $249.99 / £259.99.

Swiss website Handy Abovergleich and designer Eric Huismann have created a series of concept illustrations of how this new generation of HomePod could look. They have come up with concept designs for two separate devices: the HomePod TV (a mixture of the HomePod and the Apple TV) and the HomePod Show (a HomePod with a touchscreen display).

Here’s how they imagine the HomePod Show—a speaker with a camera and a touchscreen—could look.

Swiss website Handy Abovergleich came up with an illustration of how an Apple TV HomePod combo might look. They call this one the HomePod TV–the bar under the TV becomes not only the hub for TV, internet, and smart devices but also a sound system with support for standards such as Dolby Atmos and Apple Lossless.

For more ideas about how Apple might reinvent the HomePod read: How the HomePod can be Apple’s new iPod: Fun, popular, and simple. Plus, Could Apple’s rumored HomePod actually be a tiny Studio Display? and Why Apple needs a HomePod with a screen.

HomePod with screen/HomeHub: Software, Siri and AI

The key to such products tends to be their smart assistant and Apple has plans to improve Siri with Apple Intelligence (AI). However, Apple has delayed the release of its new improved Siri and this has had an effect on the timing of these new products which, Gurman noted in September 2024, “are considered collaborations between Apple’s artificial intelligence and home device hardware engineering groups.”

The long-rumored smart home hub has therefore been postponed because the Siri features it was intended to be based around are not ready for action.

As Macworld’s David Price has previously stated, when discussing why the HomePod needs needs more than a screen – “What would help is a thorough overhaul of Siri: fix that, and then sure, you can have a screen alongside a voice control system that actually works.”

HomePod with screen/HomeHub: Specs and features

We don’t know much about the specs of any of these devices, but their need to support Apple Intelligence will mean they do require high end tech inside:

Processor

The HomePod that launched in January 2023 featured the same S7 chip as the Apple Watch Series 7. This means the current HomePod doesn’t support Apple Intelligence and the new Siri features.

We expect that a HomePod with a screen will use a more powerful processor, that is compatible with Apple Intelligence.

Camera

If the new device combines a HomePod with a camera, or places a camera on a robot arm, that camera may share many of the features of the current range of cameras in Apple’s Macs, iPad and iPhones.

The idea that the camera may follow you around may not be necessary if Centre Stage, a feature introduced in 2021 and now present in all iPads, iPhones and Macs, can perform that function.

This camera could also be used to recognize gestures. Some years ago a patent was filed that related to a future HomePod that could interpret 3D hand gestures. That patent describes a HomePod that can “interpret three-dimensional hand gestures as a means of controlling the device so as to execute an action or function.”

Multi-touch display

We’re hoping that Apple will give us something that will compete with the Echo Show, so we can view YouTube videos and use apps on the new hybrid device. Perhaps we won’t get the display we are hoping for, but a more interactive display than the one we have currently would be great. We’d like to see more than just volume controls and a Siri animation.