Apple’s HomeView Has a Three-Strike Rule for Faces It Doesn’t Trust

Apple’s HomeView smart display will ask you to unlock your iPhone if it thinks someone is trying to fool its face recognition three times in a row.

The details come from X user pdfu (@itspdfu), who outlined the anti-spoofing system and a lockout cooldown still in development in a post on X.

HomeView recognizes up to six people by face, but it doesn’t use Face ID. As we explained last month, Apple told Daring Fireball that personal content only appears when your registered iPhone or iPad is on the same Wi-Fi network and has been unlocked recently.

According to pdfu, the anti-spoofing protection adds another layer by calculating a face-liveliness score. Once HomeView attributes three spoof attempts to a profile, that person has to authenticate on their iPhone before HomeView will show any personal data again. An accompanying graphic shows HomeView displaying “You’ll need to authenticate on your iPhone to continue” in place of the usual prompt asking an unrecognized speaker to step in front of the device.

That protection is turned on, pdfu says, in HomeView software 27.2, the same software release that brings Siri AI in beta to the device. A second feature, a lockout cooldown modelled on the iPhone’s Security Lockout (“iPhone Unavailable”) screen, is still in development:

• First lockout: can be cleared immediately
• Second lockout: 1-hour wait
• Third lockout: 4-hour wait
• Fourth lockout and later: 8-hour wait

Each lockout would count down by one for every eight hours since the last lockout, down to zero. If you clear a first lockout and aren’t locked out again for at least eight hours, for example, there would be no wait on the next one. Unlike the iPhone, HomeView has no permanent Security Lockout that forces a device reset.

Until Apple switches on the cooldown in a future update, every lockout can be cleared right away by authenticating with a companion iPhone. Apple hasn’t documented either feature publicly, so the details could change before or after launch.

HomeView starts at $429 in Canada and arrives on November 13. Apple is also reportedly working on a $1,000 robotic HomeView with a 9-inch swivel screen, while the iOS 27.2 update is required on your iPhone to set up the hub.

Would a three-strike lockout make you more comfortable putting a camera-equipped HomeView in your kitchen or entryway?