The fourth developer beta of iOS 26, which was released earlier this week, contains a peculiar warning message that hints at an unreleased Apple product.
As reported by MacRumors, the software includes interesting new wording for a location-related HomePod setting: “Your HomePod won’t be able to show you the local weather, time, or respond to Siri requests about your area,” it reads (our italics).
This is odd because the HomePod models we know about—the original model, the HomePod mini, and the 2nd-gen HomePod released in 2023—are all unable to show details of that nature, so there would be no need to mention this. They have a screen of sorts, a small round display on the top of the speaker, but it’s just used for changing the volume and pausing and playing music, and to indicate when Siri is listening. It can’t show details of the track currently playing, let alone the weather or time.
The wording, then, suggests that Apple is planning to release a HomePod with a proper screen at some point in the future: one which can display useful information and, even better, considering how inaccurate Siri is at the moment, act as a touchscreen control interface. Perhaps within the next 12 months, since iOS 27 will appear in the summer of 2026.
Apple is famously secretive, but when a new product is on the way, the company has to work ahead of launch to ensure that it will be compatible with the wider software ecosystem, which is often noticed by eagle-eyed testers during the beta process. iOS 26 betas have already given us hints about the 2nd-gen AirTag and near-confirmation of the iPhone 17 Air.
That doesn’t mean these launches are guaranteed to happen soon, or at all. Projects can run into logistical difficulties and be delayed, while plans can change, sometimes drastically. What this code indicates is that Apple is giving the idea of a HomePod with a screen serious consideration, and either hopes to launch one soon or thinks it would be amusing to trick us into thinking it does.
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.