Six operating systems apparently aren’t enough. As per the report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s building a seventh, something that borrows pieces from tvOS, watchOS, and iOS all at once, purpose-built for a smart home hub the company has reportedly been working toward for a while now.
Gurman’s description paints a familiar picture, honestly. A grid of app icons. Widgets scattered around. Clock faces you can swap out and customize. If that sounds like it’s pulling directly from the Apple Watch playbook, that’s probably not an accident.
The interesting part isn’t the layout, though; it’s what the hub itself can supposedly do. Facial recognition built right in means the display could figure out who’s actually looking at it and adjust what shows up accordingly. Walk closer, elements on screen grow bigger. Step back, they shrink. Small detail, but it says a lot about how much thought Apple’s apparently putting into a product category it’s never really touched before.
Nobody’s confirmed the name yet, but trademark filings tied to a shell company with possible Apple connections point toward “homeOS.” Fitting enough, given Apple already has iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS sitting in its lineup. One more wouldn’t exactly break the pattern.
Hardware-wise, picture something like a HomePod fused with a small square screen, somewhere around 6 to 7 inches. Siri AI sits at the center of the whole experience, according to Gurman, handling everything from FaceTime calls to HomeKit accessory controls, home security alerts, browsing photos, checking a calendar, and playing music. Basically, a lot of what your phone already does, just reimagined for something that lives permanently on a kitchen counter or nightstand.
A handful of Apple’s own apps are expected to make the jump too. Calendar, Camera, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Apple News, Reminders, Notes, plus a dedicated Siri app built specifically for talking through Siri AI conversations. Multi-user support is also apparently part of the plan, which makes sense for a device that’s presumably sitting somewhere shared, not tucked away in one person’s pocket.
Timing-wise, don’t expect a long wait. Apple’s reportedly aiming to unveil the whole thing as soon as October, putting this rumor on a pretty short runway compared to most Apple leaks that drag on for years before anything actually ships.
