Apple’s new HomeView smart hub is officially available now for $299, and comes with a host of new features for the Apple-connected smart home, including individual profiles for each family member, access to photos and Messages, and integration with all your smart devices. It looks great, but not all smart home devices are compatible with the HomeView, and for many of those that are, compatibility doesn’t equal full feature support.

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Which brands work with the Apple HomeView?

HomeView works with existing Apple Home accessories, and it’s also a Matter hub and controller. As a standalone device, the HomeView works as a hub for both HomeKit and Matter. Some brands have a long history of commitment to the Apple smart home, including Aqara, Eve, Nanoleaf, Ecobee, and LG. While not all of the devices from these brands are guaranteed to work with Apple Home, you’ll find plenty of HomeKit-compatible devices if you shop these brands.

The HomeView also controls any smart home devices with a “Works with Apple Home” or “Works with HomeKit” label.

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Something to keep in mind: anything you have set up in your Apple Home app on your iPhone, you’ll be able to control on your HomeView.

When you set up your home in the Apple Home app, you’ll need a compatible Apple Home hub. Until now, an Apple TV streaming device or a HomePod served as hubs, and the HomeView now joins that lineup.

What is not compatible with the Apple HomeView?

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Some devices may require their own manufacturer’s bridge or hub to connect, especially those that use certain incompatible connectivity protocols not supported by the HomeView.

Devices that rely on Zigbee or Z-Wave, for example, aren’t directly supported by the HomeView. For many of these devices, you can use a compatible smart home hub with Matter, like an Aqara hub, and then connect that to the HomeView.

Matter support doesn’t mean full feature support

While the Apple HomeView supports Matter, this doesn’t mean you’ll be able to use all Matter-connected device features on the display. Matter has made long strides in smart home interoperability, but the connectivity protocol is still growing and adding new features to what users can do with it.

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This means you may be able to add a Matter-compatible robot vacuum to your Apple smart home, but you’ll only be able to use basic controls for it in the Apple Home app. When new Matter updates come out in future releases, extra cleaning settings and features beyond the essentials may be added to robot vacuum options. The same may be true for smart locks and cameras connected through Matter.

What else can the HomeView do?

The Apple HomeView is a smart display for your home that expands the Apple ecosystem, but it also has some unique uses. The seven-inch touchscreen is mounted on a speaker that sits on a tabletop of your preference. You can use it to talk to Siri (as long as you have a compatible iPhone), control your Apple Home devices, and access your favorite apps, such as Messages, Music, and Calendar.

You can use the device to “hand off” calls via the Phone app or FaceTime, as well as music or video from different apps like Spotify or YouTube. If you have it in the kitchen, it could be your personal recipe assistant, turning a recipe webpage into a step-by-step walkthrough by tapping the cooking icon.

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If you’ve ever used Apple CarPlay in your car, the HomeView is pretty similar — it’s an extension of your iPhone for your home, giving you a consolidated control panel that might be more convenient than searching for the correct app on your phone.

Aside from Matter and Apple Home integration, the HomeView also supports Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 6E, and Thread.