An Apple smart doorbell would be a sure-fire winner – for all of us

A report over the weekend suggested an Apple smart home doorbell with support for Face ID is in development. It follows an earlier report of an Apple smart home camera next year.

While it could be argued that both are commodity products, and that Apple’s most important contribution is the HomeKit platform rather than the hardware, there seems little doubt about the opportunity here …

This is what Apple does

Many of us here have been using smart home tech for a great many years, so it can be easy for us to forget that this is still an early-adopter product category.

It’s very rare for me to visit the home of family or friends and find smart home tech there. For most people, it’s still the domain of gadget-lovers, with non-techy people seeing it as something mysterious and complicated.

Taking things that are techy, and making them appealing to mass market consumers, is what Apple does.

The iPhone is the obvious example. Prior to 2007, smartphones were geeky devices with keyboards and styli, and used only by the techiest among us. The iPhone turned it into a mass-market consumer product.

But the company has long been doing this. The Macintosh. The iPod. The iPad. The Apple Watch. If anyone can make smart homes mainstream, it’s Apple.

HomeKit helped, but wasn’t transformative

Apple’s first attempt at this was HomeKit. The idea was that that any smart home device could be controlled by a single iPhone app, as well as by Siri.

That definitely helped. It did make smart home tech accessible to more people, and it also addressed some of the privacy and security concerns that were holding back the market. Additionally, those HomeKit demo displays in Apple stores exposed more people to the tech, and helped to show how useful and easy to use it could be.

Apple also solved the biggest issue with smart home cameras, with HomeKit Secure Video. After countless security failings by even mainstream brands, Apple provided a means of ensuring that nobody else – not even Apple – could access footage.

In an ideal world, all that would have been enough, and Apple could have left the hardware to other companies. In practice, however, HomeKit only advanced things somewhat: it hasn’t succeeded in making smart homes mainstream.

But Apple-branded devices would succeed

The average non-techy person has no idea about HomeKit security standards, but they do trust Apple. So if Apple starts selling smart home hardware – especially the scarier stuff, like cameras and locks – then way more people are going to be happy buying it.

When last month’s report of an Apple-branded smart home camera surfaced, more than 80% of you said that you were likely to buy one.

A smart doorbell of course falls within the general category of smart home cameras, so it’s possible that Kuo and Gurman are both referring to the same plans. However, if Apple does get into this field, then for me it wouldn’t make sense to do so with a single device. I suspect we’re looking at potential plans for external security cameras, indoor cameras, and a smart doorbell.

The latest report suggested that Apple’s doorbell would likely work with any existing HomeKit-compatible smart lock, but suggests it’s possible the company would partner with a single company to offer a complete system. Given that a smart lock and a smart doorbell offer the most obvious opportunities for integration – as in the example of Face ID on the doorbell camera triggering the smart lock to open – that approach makes a lot of sense.

Apple famously says no to a thousand ideas for each one it develops, so it may be here that a branding partnership is as far as things need to go. Perhaps a co-branded smart lock, with both Apple and Yale branding, for example.

But a co-branded smart doorbell seems less likely. It’s not like any existing smart camera brands have covered themselves in glory here!

• Wyze camera breach let 13,000 customers view other people’s homes
• Anker admits to lying about Eufy security camera encryption; describes future plans
• Wyze Cam security flaw gave hackers access to video; went unfixed for almost three years
• Ring reportedly gave employees full access to customers’ live camera feeds

For that reason alone, I’d expect any camera Apple produces to carry only the company’s own branding. But the likely inclusion of Apple Intelligence features seals the deal.

Additionally, while there are existing smart locks with face-recognition, I wouldn’t trust any of them to the degree I trust Face ID.

This would be a win for all of us

The potential benefit for Apple and for non-techies is clear. But I think we all stand to gain here.

The more mainstream smart homes become, and the more Apple draws attention to the security and privacy issues, the better the tech will become for all of us – techies and newbies alike. I’d love to see this happen.

Image: Google Nest