How guests can use Apple HomeView without seeing personal information

Visitors don’t need their own Apple Account to use every feature on your Apple HomeView. Apple designed the shared display to offer basic household functions to guests while keeping personal information such as messages and calendars private.

What can a guest do?

Apple says unrecognized users can control compatible smart-home accessories, check the weather, set timers and play music. These shared functions don’t require a guest to have their own personalized HomeView profile, although access to particular accessories depends on how the home has been configured.

What stays private?

HomeView uses face recognition to distinguish up to six enrolled household members, each of whom can receive a personal Home Screen. According to Apple’s HomeView FAQ, personal content such as Messages and Calendar is available to a recognized user when their paired iPhone or iPad is connected to the same Wi-Fi network and has recently been unlocked.

A guest should not see someone else’s private content simply by walking up to the device. Shared photo albums and music may remain available, so choose what you share deliberately rather than assuming a communal screen is a private one. Apple’s launch announcement describes the separation between personal and shared content.

To give a regular household member a full personal experience, add them to the home using the Home app and make sure they have an Apple Account and a compatible iPhone or iPad. For more on how the household display works, read our complete HomeView guide and our guide to Home-compatible accessories.