Code in a beta version of Apple’s software suggests its new HomeView smart display could one day run third-party AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude. The $299 hub, which Apple lists as available on November 13, currently runs only Siri AI and a small set of audio and video apps from a connected iPhone. A new “Conversational Apps” category found in the iOS 27.3 beta points to that changing, though Apple has announced nothing, named no apps, and given no date for the feature.
## What the code shows
The finding comes from the iOS 27.3 beta, where the software HomeView uses to show apps from a connected iPhone or iPad has gained a “Conversational Apps” category. The bridge is called PebblePlay, and it works much like CarPlay, deciding which third-party apps may appear on the hub.
Code investigator pdfu, who first spotted an unused flag for the category at the start of the month, posted on November 5 that the beta confirms it. The Verge picked up the finding on November 8, and MacRumors and 9to5Mac reported the same discovery on November 5.
The same beta also adds early groundwork the feature would need: two-way audio routing, session management, and handling for interruptions. That matters because a chatbot has to hear the user through the hub’s microphones, while a music or video app only has to play sound.
Even so, pdfu cautions that the work is “still not fully wired up,” so this is a feature in progress rather than one ready to switch on. All three outlets stress the same limits: the code names no apps and gives no launch date for the feature.
## How HomeView handles apps
HomeView has no App Store of its own. Third-party apps live on the owner’s iPhone or iPad and appear on the hub’s screen through PebblePlay, in the same way CarPlay shows iPhone apps on a car display. Apple’s own HomeView page currently names only compatible third-party audio and video apps, so chatbots would be the first category beyond those two.
That distinction is what makes the finding interesting. Audio and video apps turn the hub into something to watch or listen to, while a conversational app would turn it into something to talk with. The two-way audio groundwork in the beta is the piece that would make that possible, and it is also the piece that is furthest from finished.
## What Apple has actually announced
Apple unveiled HomeView on October 13 as its first smart home hub, built around a 7-inch Liquid Retina display in tabletop and wall-mounted versions. It recognises the faces of up to six users, each getting a personal home screen, and it ships with Siri AI and Apple Intelligence built in.
It goes on sale on November 13 for $299, though not in the European Union, where Siri AI is currently unavailable. Whatever the code points to, it will not be ready when the first hubs reach buyers on launch day.
## The CarPlay precedent
There is a working model for how this could arrive, because ChatGPT has worked in CarPlay since iOS 26.4, answering by voice, and Claude added its own CarPlay app for hands-free conversations in September. Perplexity, Grok, and Meta AI are there too.
Each of those apps requested Apple’s voice-based conversational entitlement for CarPlay, and HomeView uses the same CarPlay-style bridge. The path from a car screen to a kitchen screen is therefore already proven, even if Apple has yet to open it.
Apple has also been opening Siri itself up in parallel. On November 3 it [opened Siri AI to developers](https://geroundtable.com/apple-siri-keys-app-developers/) with app skills in the iOS 27.3 betas, letting apps connect their actions to Siri and coordinate multi-step tasks across apps.
Days later it [dropped the Siri AI waitlist](https://geroundtable.com/apple-drops-siri-ai-waitlist/) for most iPhone users, widening the audience for the assistant that chatbots would sit alongside. The hub would therefore launch into a Siri that is reaching far more people than it did a month ago.
## Our Read
The timing gives this leak its edge. Siri AI is still, in chief executive John Ternus’s own words from the November 2 earnings call, “primarily request-based today,” and Ternus has pressed software chief Craig Federighi to move faster toward an [agentic Siri](https://geroundtable.com/apple-agentic-siri-2027/).
Letting ChatGPT and Claude onto the hub would give buyers a choice right now, without Apple having to build the capability itself. It would also be a rare opening of a device Apple controls end to end, and a sign of how far the assistant race has moved.
There are good reasons not to get ahead of the code, though. Beta flags are not promises: Apple tests features in pre-release software and drops some of them, and the investigator’s own caveat says the plumbing is unfinished. Treat the flag as a hint, not a launch plan.
ChatGPT is already woven into Apple devices in other ways, including [reading iCloud mail and fixing calendar entries](https://geroundtable.com/chatgpt-icloud-mail-calendar-plugins/), so a HomeView step would extend an existing relationship rather than start one. Treat this as groundwork for a later software update, not a launch feature.
## Why It Matters
For anyone weighing the $299 hub, the question is what the screen on the kitchen counter will be able to do in six months, not just on day one. If chatbots arrive, HomeView stops being a Siri-only device and becomes a place where the best assistant wins.
If they never arrive, Apple is betting its own assistant can close the gap alone. Rivals such as Alexa+ and Google Home will be happy to point that out, and buyers will judge the hub on what Siri alone can do.
## Background
HomeView is Apple’s first smart display, announced on October 13 after years of rumours about a home hub. Siri AI shipped in beta with iOS 27 on September 14, gained five more languages in October, and opened to developers on November 3.
The agentic Siri that Ternus wants is reported to be aimed at 2027, which leaves third-party chatbots as the most plausible shortcut in the meantime. Whether Apple takes it is the question the beta code raises but cannot answer yet.
Source: [MacRumors’ report](https://www.macrumors.com/2026/11/05/homeview-code-suggests-support-ai-chatbot-apps/) and [9to5Mac’s report](https://9to5mac.com/2026/11/05/homeview-will-support-third-party-ai-chatbots-suggests-code/)
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