Designing HomeView was a hard but fun journey, says Apple

Apple executives have revealed that the new HomeView is the culmination of years of design effort balancing audio, privacy, and especially Siri AI.

As the first buyers take delivery of the new HomeView, two of Apple's executives involved have been discussing the device. Speaking to TechRadar, they describe developing HomeView as a difficult but rewarding journey because of where it is meant to be used.

"Home life is super busy, you know, it's complicated, it's complex, and people are moving around," said Matthew Costello, Apple's Vice President of Hardware Engineering, "and we wanted a device that was really designed specifically for that environment."

Cecilia Dantas, Home Product Marketing, said that the overall goal was to "give you exactly what you need in the moment." She added that it was vital that HomeView "do that with absolute simplicity."

Dantas says the plan was always that each person's data be available to them, but privately. "It comes from your iPhone," she said. "If you leave, [if] you take your iPhone with you, it goes with you, and it's not kept on the device at all."

It's not intended to be just about calendars and reminders, though. Dantas says that she uses a shared family album on her HomeView, and it updates as others add to it.

HomeView can display photos on its screen when not in use.

"I'm really proud of the moments of connection that it brings," she said. "It is delightful to see the photos come up."

Long development

Costello said that ultimately HomeView "really was constructed around Siri." He said that Apple wanted to tie Siri AI into a "device that is communal in nature in a home."

"We thought [that] was a really important moment," he said. "Together with our Design Studio, we went on a long journey of exploration to figure out 'how do you create something that's a unique form for the home?'"

Despite Siri AI software being central to the design, the development actually started with the display. The company wanted a shape that "was unique from other form factors we have inside of Apple."

"So we ended up with the aspect ratio you see today," he continued. "That then drove a lot of decisions around where things were placed."

Learning from the HomePod

Chief amongst the components that had to be arranged within that form factor were the HomePod-like speakers. But it wasn't just a case of where they could fit, because the HomeView comes in two very different versions.

"Getting the display right with the audio, and then the split-audio architecture between having the sort of higher-frequency speakers in the head," said Costello about the main screen, "and then the lower-frequency woofer in the base was something we worked through."

"How do you then extend that to the wall-mounted version as well?" he asked. "It was a really fun, hard-fought journey to get to where we ended up."

HomeView's gets personialized information, such as calendar events, from your iPhone.

Beyond the speakers, though, Apple says that great attention was paid to the display. "I really love the fact that this is the lowest light performance we've ever engineered into a product," said Costello, "it's down to 0.3 nits."

"So officially, I represent the most dim product ever inside of Apple," he continued. "I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but I'm super-happy about that."

Alongside the development of the hardware, Costello said that "we really custom-built this user interface for the home, so the apps and experiences that matter in the home setting are really front and center."

HomeView first reactions

AppleInsider's Andrew O'Hara agrees enough with Costello and Dantas that he says he wants to buy five HomeViews. But at the same time, he's found that it is obviously a first-generation device, and that it has clear faults alongside its equally clear potential.

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