How do non-Apple apps like Spotify work on HomeView? It’s complicated

As you’ll probably have seen, there are a bunch of Apple’s own apps on the incoming HomeView smart display, but how do third-party apps work? This is a key question because HomeView doesn’t have an App Store – maybe so it can circumvent regulation around competition; perhaps Apple just thought it would be a bad experience if you could install loads of third-party apps on what is supposed to be a smart home control controller first.

Unlike when the HomePod first arrived, you will be able to use apps like Spotify and Audible.

CarPlay is the answer

But there’s a bit of a catch – they’ll need to be set up for CarPlay. Yep, that’s right – rather than HomeView using iPhone or iPad versions of apps, they’ll use the CarPlay interface that’s been set up for appropriate apps. This makes sense in a way, because the screen is a similar size to those you might get in a vehicle. However, it requires a paired iPhone to ‘stream’ the app from. It also means you need to have a 2019 or later iPhone as HomeView requires an iPhone with iOS 27.2 or later or iPad with iPadOS 27.2 or later.

That also means you can’t simply download any iPhone app and expect it to work on HomeView automatically – and how users will know which apps are supported is a little bit of an unknown at present. But it is a developer friendly solution and ensures that homeOS doesn’t turn into yet another Apple platform that developers have to adapt to.

More media apps surely on the way

Apple’s developer site for CarPlay now mentions HomeView: “CarPlay audio and video apps also work on Apple HomeView without requiring you to make any modifications to your app.” So presumably that mean that Google Maps wouldn’t work for example – it seems to be specifically referring to audio and video third-party apps. Will we see apps like YouTube and Netflix adapt their apps for this? You’d presume so. It does seem there are other workarounds, similar to those on Apple Vision Pro because of the patchy video app support. In other words, you can use the Safari browser to access some services on HomeView or AirPlay where supported.

In terms of widgets, there may be more leeway for CarPlay widgets from other apps to appear on HomeView, not just the aforementioned audio and video apps as per Apple’s developer terms. “You agree that Your iOS Application widget may be made available on CarPlay and Apple HomeView.” It would surely make sense to show – say – a live sport score widget on HomeView that’s currently on your iPhone’s lock screen.

Of course, Apple hopes that you will use its own services. HomeView has the below list of Apple apps natively installed, but there are other Apple apps that work via your phone using the CarPlay-type setup. These are Apple News (available in the US, Canada, UK and Australia), Apple Music Classical, Apple TV and Audiobooks (not called ‘Books’ as on other devices but the icon indicates it’s the same app).

Quite why these aren’t available as native apps is unknown but I wonder if again it may be to do with competition concerns. Or maybe Apple thought it would confuse users to have them on the device as a default – especially for something like Apple News that isn’t available everywhere.

One thing we don’t know at present is how this will work with multiple family members that have different iPhones since Apple has been saying it is easy to switch between users on HomeView. And how it would work if, say, I was out of the house and my kids wanted to use Spotify. Presumably it just wouldn’t work? That’s something I’ll be testing out when I get my hands on a review sample in a few weeks.