Apple's $299 HomeView doesn't have an App Store. Its software may not care. Code discovered in the iOS 27.3 beta suggests Apple is laying the groundwork for chatbot apps on the smart home hub — eight days before it goes on sale.

According to MacRumors, the software HomeView uses to display apps from a connected iPhone or iPad has gained a "Conversational Apps" category in the latest beta, along with preparations for two-way audio routing, session management, and interruptions. The code investigator known as pdfu, who found the changes, notes the plumbing is "still not fully wired up."

Apple hasn't announced chatbot support, and nothing in the code says which apps would qualify or when it could launch — so ChatGPT or Claude on your kitchen counter remains unconfirmed. But this isn't a one-off stray string: pdfu floated the same possibility on Sunday, after spotting an unused flag in HomeView's software.

It would extend a model Apple already built into the device: no App Store, but CarPlay-style third-party audio and video apps beamed from a connected iPhone or iPad. Conversational apps would bring that same mirror-and-borrow approach to the category Apple is betting its software future on — and be a quiet admission that one assistant isn't enough for a shared household screen.

The same code dig turned up the other half of that bargain. HomeView includes anti-spoofing protection: after three spoof attempts against a profile, the user must authenticate with an iPhone to see personal data. A lockout cooldown system is also in development — a first lockout clears immediately, a second brings a one-hour wait, a third four hours, and a fourth eight — though for now any lockout can be cleared right away with an iPhone.

That pairing is the story. A display that recognizes up to six faces and reads out your messages, calendar, and photos is a new kind of target: fool the face check and you inherit someone's personal feed. Apple is building the bouncer at the same time as the open door — exactly what you'd do if you planned to let other companies' chatbots onto the family screen.

HomeView launches November 13 in desktop and wall-mounted versions. The question is whether the first chatbot arrives before the first software update — or whether Apple keeps the category in reserve until Siri AI proves it needs the help.

— via MacRumors