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- Apple has unveiled a new Home Collection of smart cameras, door locks, thermostats and sensors developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.
- The accessories include an indoor security camera that physically tilts away when you’re home, a hands-free smart lock and end-to-end encryption through Apple Home.
- The range launches overseas from December, but Apple hasn’t announced Australian pricing or availability.
Apple is making another play in the smart home space with a new lineup of accessories, including thermostats, video doorbells, smart locks, floodlights and security cameras for inside and outside the home. But Apple isn’t making all these accessories itself; instead, it’s enlisted Schneider Electric and LG.
It’s all quite simple, really. You tap your iPhone to set up a new accessory, then manage everything through the Apple Home app, no extra manufacturer app or new account required. And with Apple making privacy the central selling point of the new Apple Home Collection, you have to wonder what Cupertino thinks of the recent allegations surrounding LG’s smart TVs.
But before we dive into that controversy, there’s a catch for us here in Australia: the first devices are launching in the US and Canada, with a select few products also making their way to the UK from December, with some following in early 2027. With no confirmed Australian release date, it’s unclear when Apple Home Collection will start monitoring our front-door flyscreens or turn on the air conditioning when the thermostat peaks in summer.
What’s In the 2026 Apple Home Collection?
LG is supplying much of the new hardware for Apple. Its products cover home security, access and climate control, while Schneider Electric is contributing its own smart thermostat and room sensor. Everything is designed to work through the Apple Home app, so you don’t need separate accounts for each manufacturer.
1/5LG’s New Smart Security Cameras
The new range includes four LG cameras that capture up to 2.5K video, with different models designed to keep an eye on everything from your front door to the backyard.
The LG Video Doorbell has separate cameras for visitors and packages, so you can see who’s at the door and whether they’ve left a delivery without relying on a single camera angle.
Meanwhile, the Floodlight Cam and Outdoor Cam offer colour night vision, making it easier to identify what’s happening outside after dark rather than relying on grainy black-and-white footage.
The most interesting design choice belongs to the LG Indoor Cam Plug-In. Rather than just indicating it’s no longer recording, the camera physically tilts down when the first household member returns home. You can still reposition the camera manually or through the Home app, giving users a visible, physical indication of where it’s pointing.
It’s just enough reassurance if you don’t like the idea of the camera watching you relax on the couch. That said, just because a camera isn’t pointing at you doesn’t mean it can’t record anything else.
1/2LG Smart Deadbolt Lock
Moving to the front door, the LG Smart Deadbolt Lock uses Ultra Wideband technology to recognise the precise position of an approaching compatible iPhone or Apple Watch and automatically unlocks the door for hands-free access to your home. Unlike NFC, which usually requires you to tap your device against a reader, Ultra Wideband can recognise you approaching without you having to pull your phone out of your pocket. It also has a PIN pad and a backup key if your tech is ever uncooperative.
The lock also supports Matter, a standard that helps smart-home devices from different brands work together, and Aliro, which is designed to make smartphones and smart watches work as secure digital keys across different manufacturers.
Most importantly, Apple says the lock’s core access functions operate locally, even without an internet connection. So if your Wi-Fi drops out, you should still be able to get through your front door without calling a tech-savvy locksmith. And if the electronics ever let you down, a physical backup key is there. Try not to lose it.
1/2Everything Else in Apple’s 2026 Smart Home Collection
As for the rest of the smart home collection, LG and Schneider Electric have developed their own smart thermostat, alongside separate temperature and humidity sensors.
The thermostats use Apple’s Adaptive Temperature feature, which adjusts heating and cooling based on whether people are home, away or settling in for the night. They can also use readings from sensors in different rooms, rather than relying on the temperature in just one part of the house.
That means less fiddling with the temperature throughout the day and less heating or cooling an empty house. As for how much energy you could save day to day from a feature like this, it depends on the system and how you use it.
Not to mention, none of these new smart home products come cheap. Prices start at USD $199.95 for the Indoor Cam, USD $249.95 for the Video Doorbell and USD $349.95 for the Smart Deadbolt Lock. The Floodlight Cam costs USD $399.95, while both thermostats start at USD $199.95. And who knows what they might cost if they ever come to Australia.
The cameras also support ten days of encrypted event video history through iCloud+, with AI-generated descriptions and natural-language footage searches on eligible plans and compatible devices. Instead of scrubbing through hours of footage, you could ask it to find what happened to the package delivered last Tuesday or whether the dog is playing outside.
And although Apple says there’s no separate camera subscription, you’ll still need to pay up for iCloud+ to access it all. The difference is that you’re paying for Apple’s existing cloud storage service rather than another subscription.
The LG Privacy Question
You can’t talk about Apple’s new Home Collection without mentioning the elephant in the room. One of its partners, LG, has recently faced some serious allegations about what its smart TVs might be collecting behind the scenes.
In September, an investigation by Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs, working with independent security researchers, alleged that LG televisions were scanning home networks for information about other connected devices, including devices that owners hadn’t deliberately linked to their TVs. The investigation also raised concerns about audio capture and transcripts, alongside LG’s automatic content recognition technology, which can identify what people are watching and inform advertising.
LG has since disputed claims of continuous ambient recording, saying its voice-recognition features require user activation through a remote button or an enabled wake word, and that it deletes audio if the wake word isn’t recognised. It’s important to note that these allegations concern LG televisions, not any of the newly announced Apple Home accessories.
What Apple’s Privacy Protections Actually Cover
It’s important to note that these allegations concern LG televisions, not any of the newly announced Apple Home accessories.
Regardless, Apple is forging ahead with this new collection, telling customers that camera footage and personal data handled through Apple Home are encrypted end-to-end.
According to Apple, neither the company, LG, nor Schneider Electric can access that protected information. Footage is processed either locally via a compatible Apple Home hub, like the new fourth-generation Apple TV 4K, or through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute system. There’s also no need to log in to a separate LG account or use its camera cloud service.
Whether it’s a camera physically tilting away from you or end-to-end encryption, Apple has added some meaningful safeguards to the collection.
Will the New Apple Home Collection Be Available in Australia?
Sorry everyone, but we’re missing out this time. At launch, LG’s four cameras, including the video doorbell, will be available in the US, Canada and the UK, while the LG Smart Deadbolt Lock and LG and Schneider Electric thermostats are limited to the US and Canada.
But Australia isn’t the only market missing out on Apple’s latest smart-home push at launch. The European Union is missing out on Siri AI entirely on iPhones and iPads, as Apple tries to find a pathway forward amid broader disputes with EU regulators over the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and privacy. That’s also why the new Apple HomeView display isn’t being sold there, nor is there a confirmed EU launch for the wider Apple Home Collection.
For now, we’ll have to watch the overseas rollout and see whether Apple announces local availability further down the track. Man of Many has reached out to Apple for comment. The promise of fewer apps, a front door that unlocks when you approach, and a camera that physically looks away when you’re home is appealing enough to wait it out.
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