Apple has an enormous software program 12 months forward, with main redesigns coming to iOS 19, macOS 16, and even iPadOS 19. However the firm additionally has a model new OS anticipated to launch this 12 months. Right here’s all the things we learn about Apple’s new ‘homeOS.’
homeOS will debut on Apple’s new ‘HomePad’ system
It’s not day by day that Apple launches a model new software program platform, and it by no means does so with out good motive. OS launches are all the time tied to new product launches. And the identical shall be true with homeOS.
Later this 12 months, Apple is anticipated to debut a model new ‘HomePad’ sensible show. This product shall be a kind of cross between an iPad and HomePod. There are many fascinating particulars concerning the HomePad’s {hardware} yow will discover elsewhere.
For this text although, let’s deal with the software program that can energy the HomePad: homeOS.
What to anticipate from Apple’s new homeOS
Based mostly on Mark Gurman’s reporting, homeOS will bear lots of similarities to Apple’s present software program platforms—however tailor-made to the wants of contemporary properties.
House Display screen
For instance, homeOS will supply a customizable House Display screen very very similar to iOS and iPadOS.
On the House Display screen you’ll be capable of:
- add widgets to trace the climate, shares, reminders, and extra
- launch apps from an iOS-style grid
- have a dock on your go-to apps
- entry sensible house controls
All of this could feel and look very acquainted for anybody with an iPhone or iPad.
Siri and Apple Intelligence
Siri will even be a crucial a part of homeOS.
Gurman experiences that homeOS and the HomePad are designed to “convey Siri and Apple Intelligence to life in a approach that hasn’t occurred earlier than.”
Basically, think about all the things Siri can do on HomePod now, plus the highly effective iOS 19 upgrades that give Siri “extra consciousness of your private context, in addition to the flexibility to take motion for you inside and throughout your apps.” That would add as much as a compelling voice-first expertise in homeOS.
Apps in homeOS
On the subject of apps, Gurman doesn’t consider an App Retailer shall be out there—at the very least at launch.
However there will definitely be a wide range of built-in Apple apps supplied. Extra past this record could also be included, however at a minimal we’re anticipating the next:
- FaceTime
- Notes
- Calendar
- Reminders
- House
- Safari
- Settings
- Information
- Music
- TV
- Podcasts
- Climate
- Images
Dynamically aware of customers’ distance
Talking of the Images app, homeOS will even supply a particular mode for displaying a slideshow of photographs—primarily like a screensaver.
It’s seemingly homeOS will supply Images ‘screensavers’ as considered one of a number of choices for if you’re a good distance away from the HomePad.
Gurman writes that HomePad “will embody sensors to find out how shut an individual is. It’ll then mechanically modify its options relying on the gap.”
I can think about a situation the place photographs and/or an array of StandBy-like widgets will show if you’re removed from the system, then homeOS will change to displaying the House Display screen if you’re close to.
Apple’s homeOS wrap-up: ‘iOS, however on your house’
This 12 months shall be an enormous one for Apple unifying its varied software program platforms to really feel extra cohesive. So it’s no shock that the brand new OS launching, homeOS, feels like it can obtain that objective too.
The straightforward pitch of “iOS, however on your house” may give homeOS a simple in with the iPhone’s billions of energetic customers, and make HomePad a sexy possibility when it launches later this 12 months.
What do you consider Apple’s plans for homeOS? Tell us within the feedback.
Finest HomeKit sensible house equipment
FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.
