Everything Apple Announced at Its Welcome Home Event
Apple HomeView, HomePod mini 2, a $299 Apple TV 4K and Apple Home Collection: every announcement from Apple's Welcome home event, with prices and dates, plus what the lineup says about Siri AI, rising prices and your existing Apple home.
What does Apple think a home is in 2026? Three days ago, the honest answer was a six year old speaker, a four year old streaming box and an app on your phone. This morning Apple answered with four press releases, no keynote, and a lineup that tells you more about its strategy than any single product does: every new home device is built around Siri AI, and almost every useful feature runs back through your iPhone.
Apple announced Apple HomeView, HomePod mini 2, a new Apple TV 4K and Apple Home Collection at its Apple Experience in New York. Preorders for the first three opened today. Here is the full lineup at a glance before we get into what it adds up to.
| Product | Price (U.S.) | Preorders | Available | Siri AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple HomeView | $299 | October 13 | November 13 | Beta at launch, HomeView software 27.2 |
| Apple HomeView (Wall Mounted) | $299, mounts from $59.95 | October 13 | November 13 | Beta at launch |
| HomePod mini 2 | $149 | October 13 | October 30 | Future software update |
| Apple TV 4K (4th generation) | $299 | October 13 | November 13 | Beta in tvOS 27.2 |
| Apple Home Collection | From $39.95 | Not announced | December, some early 2027 | Controlled with Siri |
Source: Apple Newsroom, October 13, 2026. Singapore preorders for HomeView open October 15.
Apple HomeView: the screen Apple Home never had
The headline product is a 7 inch Liquid Retina display on a domed speaker base, $299 in four colors, plus a $299 wall mounted model that uses Schneider Home mounts sold separately. It recognizes up to six people by face, shows each person their own Home Screen, and only surfaces personal Messages and Calendar content when it sees your face and your paired iPhone or iPad is nearby and recently unlocked. It runs Siri AI in beta from day one and doubles as a home hub and a smart home dashboard that can show up to nine camera feeds at once. Our full analysis covers what Apple HomeView needs from your iPhone and who should buy it.
HomePod mini 2: new colors, a delayed brain
HomePod mini 2 costs $149 and arrives October 30 in pink, green, blue, white and midnight, with the S10 chip, Wi‑Fi 6E, Bluetooth 6, Sound Glow lighting and the ability to work as a Mac speaker. Siri AI is coming to it in a future software update rather than at launch, and Apple has not named a date. Read our breakdown of what changed in HomePod mini 2 and why Siri AI buyers may want to wait.
Apple TV 4K: more than double the price, and more ambitious
The new Apple TV 4K (4th generation) costs $299, compared with the $129 starting price Apple announced for the previous generation in 2022. It brings the A19 chip, an AV1 decoder, Wi‑Fi 7, three far field microphones for hands free Siri, and a single 128GB configuration with Ethernet and Thread. It is also the only way to build Apple's new four speaker HomePod surround setup. The twist for existing owners is that Siri AI arrives as a beta in tvOS 27.2 on Apple TV 4K (2nd generation or later) too. We worked through who should upgrade to the new Apple TV 4K and who should keep the one they have.
Apple Home Collection: curated by Apple, built by partners
The fourth announcement is a set of cameras, a video doorbell, a UWB smart deadbolt, two thermostats and room sensors from LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, starting at $39.95 and reaching stores from December, with some products slipping to early 2027. They set up with a tap from iPhone, need no separate app or account, store 10 days of camera history in iCloud+, and are available only in the U.S., Canada and, for cameras, the UK. Our look at Apple Home Collection prices, regions and requirements explains why the front door is the most interesting part.
The pattern: Siri AI as the price of admission
Look across all four releases and the same fine print appears again and again. Siri AI on HomePod mini 2 and Apple TV requires the owner of the home to have an Apple Intelligence enabled iPhone or iPad, and HomeView needs a compatible iPhone or iPad just to set up. Personal requests on every device need a paired Apple Intelligence enabled iPhone or iPad. Some server side features carry daily usage limits, and Apple says expanded access will be available for a fee in the future. That last line is the most consequential sentence Apple published today, because it suggests the smart home's new brain may eventually come with a meter attached.
It also explains the staggered timeline. HomeView and the new Apple TV 4K run Siri AI from November 13, older Apple TV 4K models get it in tvOS 27.2, and HomePod mini 2 waits for an unnamed update. Apple's releases today do not mention Siri AI for the original HomePod mini or HomePod (2nd generation) at all. If you own those speakers, today was a hardware event that mostly happened to other people's homes.
Prices moved up
The other pattern is cost. HomeView and the new Apple TV 4K both cost $299, the Apple TV 4K more than doubled in price, and a complete Apple front door from Home Collection starts near $600 before installation. HomePod mini 2 at $149 is the only low priced entry point left, and it is also the product waiting longest for Siri AI. Apple is no longer trying to win the smart home on price. It is betting that families already deep in iPhone will pay for a home that knows who they are.
Where it is not available
HomeView is not sold in the European Union at all, because Siri AI is currently unavailable in iOS there, and Siri AI on the new devices is coming in English in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the UK. Home Collection's lock and thermostats are limited to the U.S. and Canada. For a company that usually launches globally, this is a noticeably regional home.
What existing owners should do now
Nothing you own stops working today. Apple TV, HomePod and now HomeView are the home hub options under the updated Home architecture, and our home prep checklist is still the best place to start. Check whether your iPhone qualifies with our guide to which iPhones get Siri AI, because every new feature announced today leans on it. And if you want the context for why Apple waited this long, our Welcome home preview and home hub analysis lay out the backstory.
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What to watch next
The calendar does the rest. HomePod mini 2 lands October 30, HomeView and Apple TV 4K on November 13, Home Collection from December, and the PoE wall mount and some accessories in early 2027. Between now and then, the two questions that will define this lineup are when HomePod mini 2 actually gets Siri AI, and what Apple charges once those usage limits start to bite. Apple finally rebuilt the home around Siri. The next few months will show whether Siri is ready to be lived with.