Apple's HomeView already has a camera — a 12MP Center Stage unit for FaceTime calls, disclosed at launch. But the device's software suggests Apple wants it to be much more: a HomeKit Secure Video camera that can watch your house, according to settings strings discovered in HomeView Software 27.2 by code sleuth pdfu and reported by MacRumors.
The strings describe four camera modes — Off, Detect Activity, Stream, and "Stream & Allow Recording" — with scheduling tied to whether users are home, away, or asleep. There's a HomeView-specific 1080p/30fps video and microphone configuration that the software selects for HomeKit Secure Video sessions. Only home members could view streams and recordings; a green light appears and a sound plays when a stream is viewed or recording starts, and users get a notification whenever camera settings change.
The most telling detail is the constraint: streaming and recording can only be enabled from the HomeView itself, while people are home. Face recognition and activity zones would be configured from the Home app on iPhone, and another string suggests the device takes photos to refresh its camera preview whenever a member opens the Home app — each one accompanied by the green light.
That is Apple negotiating with itself in code. A camera that recognizes up to six household faces, sitting in the kitchen, is a privacy pitch that needs every reassurance it can get — and Apple has clearly designed them in: member-only access, on-device enablement, visible recording indicators. It's the same playbook as the face-matching data Apple says is processed in Secure Exclaves where even Apple can't reach it.
Apple hasn't announced the camera mode, and strings are not a shipping commitment. But the timing is hard to miss: the HomeView launches November 13 with software that's already six months old and a day-one update waiting — a perfect delivery vehicle for an undisclosed feature. And Google's Nest Hub Max and Amazon's Echo Show put cameras in homes years ago. Apple arrives late, as usual — and, as usual, with the privacy version.
Watch whether the camera mode is live on day one or switched on later. Either way, Apple's first smart display is already built to be its cheapest HomeKit Secure Video camera.
— via MacRumors