This week saw Apple launch its latest device, a $300 HomeView screen designed to bring smart home management, entertainment and communications to a single, portable device.
Arguably, all these elements – and more – are already contained in a single, portable device: the iPhone. In fact, without one the HomeView’s uses are a touch limited. However, the device does contain a number of potential use cases that could see it become a useful go-between across devices and humans in the whole household – and brands.
The device is both user-specific and user-agnostic – meaning everyone in the household can use it but it can also deliver services specific to single individuals as long as they have an Apple ID. The device recognises users by their faces, allowing them to access their personal content in Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders and Find My. Alongside Siri AI, the device can deliver personalised responses to queries providing an opportunity for brands to interact more easily with consumers during important contextual moments.
For example, if it is sited on a kitchen worktop, the HomeView can help individuals access their own shopping lists contained within Reminders, adding to them where necessary. An item added while at the cooker could appear on the Watch of someone already in the grocery store. Adding missing goods while already in the pantry is also a boon when Reminders is shared with existing ecommerce providers, whose baskets could be updated in real time, while also making product suggestions. Using Siri makes it handy when there are no hands spare to type.
DoorDash already provides this functionality to Apple Reminders users who upload their grocery lists to the app, offering recommendations tied to the list via its own app which the user then only needs to approve. Reminders also allows users to share shopping lists and send notifications, allowing you to collect (and perhaps even ignore!) requests to be added.
This integration may extend yet further into a hands-free approach as the delivery company announced in September that it is to trial an AI ordering agent inside Apple Messages (also supported by HomeView). The facility, currently in Beta and only available in the US, allows users to text DoorDash the sort of meal they fancy, it searches restaurants, builds a basket and takes you to checkout.
If you fancy a more home-grown approach, the ‘fridge photo’ function helps consumers take a picture of their fridge, identifies usable ingredients and suggests a recipe, flagging missing ingredients and creating a shopping list to restock.
While the HomeView has been met with a degree of cynicism due to its limited app functionality (it behaves much the same way as a CarPlay screen when users want anything beyond the basic suite of embedded Apple apps, needing a phone nearby), integrated use cases such as these could potentially make it a powerful tool for brands to deliver context-based offers and other in-moment marketing opportunities.
