Siri AI Comes Home: What Works on the $299 HomeView and Apple TV 4K, What Waits for the $149 HomePod mini 2, and What Needs an iPhone

Apple's new Siri has been on iPhones in beta since September. These devices are the first built for it: a 7-inch home display, a new Apple TV, and a cheaper smart speaker. The catch is that how much Siri AI each one can do depends on which iPhone is in your pocket.

Device by device

What Siri AI does on each

• HomeView: broad world knowledge, more conversational answers, onscreen awareness, and better music discovery, which works even without an Apple Intelligence device. Conversations can continue in the Siri app on other Apple devices.
• Apple TV 4K: a full-screen Siri that answers questions during playback, such as filming locations or age suitability, in a compact overlay, and controls smart home scenes hands-free with three far-field microphones.
• HomePod mini 2: Siri AI is promised, but not at launch.

What needs an iPhone, and what may cost extra

• Personal context (your Calendar or Messages, or a show a contact recommended) needs a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad.
• Siri AI on Apple TV and HomePod mini 2 requires the home owner to have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad on the latest software.
• On HomeView, personal content only appears when the enrolled user is recognised by face and their paired iPhone or iPad is nearby and recently unlocked.
• Server-side features have daily usage limits, and Apple says expanded access will cost a fee in the future. It gives no amount.
• Smart camera recognition and video summaries need an eligible iCloud+ plan.

Where it works

At launch Siri AI speaks English only, in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the UK. Canadian French support for HomeView is coming in a later update. HomeView is not sold in the EU, and Siri AI is not initially available in the EU on iOS or iPadOS. Requests run on-device or on Apple's Private Cloud Compute, and microphone data is processed in Secure Exclaves.

The surround-sound bundle

The new Apple TV is the first to support four-speaker surround with HomePod mini 2 or HomePod (2nd gen) in matching front and rear pairs. By The Mac Observer's arithmetic, the cheapest version, four HomePod mini 2 speakers plus the Apple TV 4K, is $895 before tax.

What this means if you're choosing a home assistant

If your household already uses Apple Intelligence iPhones, HomeView and the new Apple TV are the first places Siri AI feels finished enough to judge, though it is still labelled beta. If you're outside the eight launch countries, in the EU, or use an older iPhone, most of the new Siri won't reach you yet. And budget for a possible fee: Apple has said the free daily limits won't be the whole story.