Apple just unveiled a major Apple Home upgrade smart home fans will love – at a much cheaper price than Ring or Google
It could save you hours of searching security footage
QUICK SUMMARY
According to Apple's new Apple Intelligence update, users will soon be able to get detailed AI-generated summaries of recorded footage, alongside natural language search that makes finding specific moments much quicker.
The features will come via an iCloud+ subscription, with plans currently starting at £0.99/$0.99 per month for 50GB of storage and one camera.
Apple’s WWDC dominated the web earlier this week, unveiling everything from its long-awaited Siri AI to a redesigned Liquid Glass interface. However, as usual, smart home fans were left a little disappointed by the lack of any hardware announcements, despite new HomePod rumours swirling since last year.
That said, we did get a small glimmer of hope in the form of a new Apple Intelligence feature that could make Apple Home a far more compelling option for anyone considering entering the smart home space and choosing their ecosystem.
Before we get into that, it’s worth noting that access to these new AI-powered features will come via an iCloud+ subscription. Plans currently start at £0.99/$0.99 per month for 50GB of storage and one camera, £2.99/$2.99 per month for 200GB and up to five cameras, and £8.99/$9.99 per month for 2TB of storage with unlimited cameras.
Right – now onto the good stuff.
Once the upgraded Apple Intelligence features arrive, Apple Home Secure Video users will be able to receive AI-generated summaries of what’s happening across their recorded footage. This means events will be analysed across your stored videos, making it much easier to understand what’s happening around your home.
Apple is also introducing natural language search to Home Secure Video, allowing users to find specific events using simple phrases. In practice, this should make it significantly quicker to locate key moments without endlessly scrolling through hours of recordings.
Taken together, these upgrades mean Apple could effectively deliver AI-powered smart home video search from as little as $0.99 per month, which is a notably lower cost than many rival subscription services from competing brands.
That said, it’s worth remembering that iCloud+ storage isn’t dedicated solely to Home Secure Video. The same allowance is also used for things like iPhone backups, photos and documents, so if you’ve got multiple devices or cameras constantly recording, you could max out your storage limit faster than expected.
However, if you’ve got your settings adjusted properly, with motion detection and recording limited exclusively to important events, it could actually work out very well.
