The smart home has an interface problem. Searching for apps on your phone, fighting a confused voice assistant, and fiddling with the “smart” display to turn off the light is enough to send anyone running back to the wall switch. But now Apple is trying to solve the problems associated with smart home control and has a chance to make the smart home work.
The company will reportedly launch an “artificial intelligence wall tablet for home control” next year, and is said to be developing more devices for the home (including cameras, a tabletop robot, and maybe even a TV). In addition to other features such as video calling, this new smart display will reportedly be the center of Apple’s home automation platform, Apple Home, providing a common home interface for controlling smart devices such as lights, locks, security systems and cameras.
It’s high time Apple took the smart home seriously
It’s high time Apple took the smart home seriously, allowing Apple Home/HomeKit to largely languish in the decade since its launch. All signs point to a renewed interest in the technology, sparked by the company’s involvement with Matter (a new smart home connectivity standard it helped develop) and spurred by the need to find the next big thing.
Apple’s alleged first new home product falls into one of the trickiest categories: the smart display. Originally designed to “show” you what the voice assistant on your smart speaker is doing, today’s smart displays have become a generic and unremarkable product. It turns out that cramming a smart home control panel, a video calling device, a camera surveillance system, a digital photo frame, a calendar, an alarm clock, or even a kitchen TV into a poorly powered, poorly programmed touchscreen attached to a voice-activated speaker was not the solution. huge success.
The original smart display, Echo Show, was “a character study in gadget restraint,” Dieter Bohn wrote in his review. Subsequent devices did not show so much restraint. Photo Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Can Apple do anything better? Last week, reports from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman gave us the first real details about the long-rumored Apple Home device, the HomePad, as Gurman calls it. And it sounds like a pretty standard, albeit small, smart display.
According to Gurman, the product will be a square, six-inch tablet that can be mounted on a wall (e.g. Amazon Echo Hub) or docked to a speaker (e.g. Google Pixel Tablet). It will have a built-in security camera (e.g. Nest Hub Max) and sensors that adjust the screen as you get closer to display a more detailed interface (e.g. Echo Show 8). And of course, it will play music, act as a video intercom, stream security camera footage, and control smart home devices (like every smart display on the market).
The problem is that despite their many capabilities, today’s smart displays are no better than smart speakers at home control. The original smart displays – Echo Show and Nest Hub – were designed as voice-enabled devices, and as an afterthought, delayed touch controls were added.
While high-end smart home tablets that support installation automation systems such as Crestron and Savant have greater capabilities, they require hours of programming by a professional. The same goes for dashboards from powerful DIY platforms like Home Assistant, which require more time and expertise than most homeowners need. Recent consumer tablets like the Echo Hub and Pixel Tablet have made some progress in solving this interface problem, but they are still too complicated to configure and program for the average user.
Apple must bring its signature simplicity to this space: it must make everything just work. To succeed, Apple must offer an intuitive user interface that effectively combines voice and touch in a way no other smart display can. It won’t be easy, but developing new user interfaces that push existing device categories further is a proven path for the company (see iOS, tvOS, watchOS).
Echo Hub is a wired, wall-mounted smart home control device for Amazon’s Alexa smart home platform. Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
While it’s late in the game, Apple has some things to do. The company’s HomeKit framework and Apple Home smart home platform use local control, which means that, unlike competitors Amazon and Google, it does not rely on a cloud connection. Matter reduces some of Apple Home’s barriers to entry: cost and availability of compatible products. So from day one, Apple Home’s smart display will be able to connect to and control smart devices like lights, locks, cameras, and devices already in homes.
According to Gurman, HomePad will run on the new homeOS, codenamed Pebble. It will be based on Apple TV’s tvOS and will have a simplified touch interface that incorporates elements of watchOS and the iPhone’s StandBy mode. Gurman says Apple intends to allow most users to interact with the device using voice.
If Apple comes up with an effective interface that combines voice and touch, it could succeed. Imagine saying “Siri, turn on the lights” as you approach your device. The screen then shifts to show appropriate controls based on contextual data, allowing you to easily adjust the assistant’s behavior with a single tap. This would be a huge step forward compared to where we are today, but the possibilities are much greater.
This is where I worry and hope. Apple’s biggest problem is Siri. While it can perform basic tasks, it lags significantly behind the competition, especially when it comes to smart home voice control. For this to work, Siri needs to get a lot smarter. Gurman reports that the HomePad hardware is designed with App Intents in mind, “a system that allows artificial intelligence to precisely control apps and tasks” and will “bring Siri and Apple Intelligence to life in a way that hasn’t happened before.”
But much more intelligence will be needed to take a voice assistant from simple command-and-control interactions — “Siri, set the thermostat to 68 degrees” — to understanding and interpreting context. For example, say “Siri, I’m cold” and the device will know how to adjust the temperature of the room you are in. It’s a much better user interface – if Apple can get it right.
Google’s Pixel tablet has a home control panel that allows you to view cameras and control devices. Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge
Although Apple has announced that some form of smarter Siri is coming, it looks like we’ll have to wait a while for a truly capable assistant to run our smart home. Gurman reports that a more powerful, conversational Siri based on LLM will hit the market before at least 2026. While both Amazon and Google have also stated that they are working on similar capabilities for their voice assistants, neither seems close to launch.
Apple needs to bring its signature simplicity to the smart display: it needs to make everything just work
Combining existing digital assistant technology with its new LLM-based future appears to be a complex endeavor. These companies face obstacles created by decades of technical baggage in the code, millions of devices in customers’ homes and voice assistants that people already rely on for basic control. We’re still waiting for Amazon’s “new” Alexa to be released, as it apparently can’t reliably control lighting. In all the hype surrounding Apple Intelligence, Apple has never once mentioned that its smarter Siri can also control your Apple Home.
Apple has a tortoise and hare history of launching into new categories, taking its time, “borrowing” ideas from successful products, and then adding a layer of innovation to seal the deal. In this case, Apple needs something more. It needs to refine the interface and voice assistant. It’s a tall order, but the market is waiting for someone to make it all work.
Credit : www.theverge.com
