Apple Reportedly Building Its Smart Home Comeback on LG Hardware, and the First Devices Are Already Filed

Apple's long-promised return to the smart home is taking a shape nobody quite predicted. According to Bloomberg, the company has spent months co-developing a set of connected home accessories with LG Electronics, and those products will go on sale carrying LG's name rather than Apple's.

The list is wider than the headlines suggest. Gurman's report covers a video doorbell, a smart deadbolt lock, a thermostat, a temperature sensor, an indoor camera, an outdoor camera and a floodlight camera. LG has already started the regulatory approval process for them, and Apple's involvement does not appear anywhere in those filings.

Apple Reportedly Building Its Smart Home Comeback on LG Hardware

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LG is handling manufacturing and customer support. Apple's role sits upstream, in the design and the software side, which is why Bloomberg describes the arrangement as second-party rather than a straightforward licensing deal.

The hub arrives first

All of this is meant to orbit Apple's own smart home hub, which is expected to be introduced on October 13 alongside an updated HomePod mini and a new Apple TV. The hub is reported to use a roughly six-inch square display and come in tabletop and wall-mounted versions, handling lights, locks, video calls, music and photos.

The LG accessories are further out. Development reportedly slipped behind Apple's own hardware, and they may not reach buyers until early 2027.

Taken together, Gurman frames the whole exercise as a formal reboot of HomeKit, the platform Apple launched back in 2014 and then left to drift while Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest took the categories that actually sell.

The lock is the interesting one

The deadbolt is reported to include ultra wideband, which would let it recognise an authorised person walking up and open without a tap. There is no confirmation yet on whether it supports Apple's HomeKey or the newer Aliro standard, and that detail matters more than it sounds. It decides whether this is an Apple device wearing LG's logo or an LG device that happens to play nicely with an iPhone.