I don’t have a HomeView yet. But I’m excited to own one.
We had an Amazon Echo Show in our kitchen for a while. My son was a bit too young and screen-obsessed at the time, though, so he would stare at the screen for extended periods of time when it showed various headlines and whatnot that Amazon would occasionally put up there. And when we played music, he’d watch the lyrics go by. We didn’t love that behavior, so we switched to an audio-only Amazon Echo device.
It’s been years since then. So I’m going to try the HomeView in the place of that Echo.
Here’s why:
I’m confident that Apple won’t show endlessly scrolling promos on that screen. Amazon’s Echos are increasingly desperate to increase engagement. The ones with displays show constant, ever-changing messages. And when you use an Echo — to set a timer, to check the weather — it very frequently prompts you to use it for something else. It’s obnoxious. “It’s going to be sunny and 56 degrees today. By the way, I can also play you a news brief—” “ALEXA STOP!” is a frequent callout. I expect the HomeView won’t require that either.
But the display is helpful. I appreciate seeing a timer. The Echo Show in my office lists my next meeting, the date and time, the current weather — I love these things.
Yes, my phone shows those things. Yes, my Apple Watch shows those things. But I like that data being glanceable and not requiring I look at a full-on distraction machine. I’m thinking the HomeView might be the Kindle hardware of tiny bits of data I want. In other words, I won’t bother using the HomeView to search the web or play games; I’ll use it for quick bits of info and not get sucked into my phone. I’m looking forward to that.