Which Apple HomeKit hub are you running, and what do you want from Apple's new one?

[Amanda Jones]

I've been poking around the Home Hubs screen in the Home app more than usual lately, and with Apple reportedly about to show off its long-delayed home hub, it feels like the right time to ask: what are you all running as your apple homekit hub right now, and what would actually make you switch?

My current setup
• HomePod mini in the living room acting as the connected hub
• Apple TV 4K in the bedroom sitting on standby
• Home Assistant running alongside, with my Zigbee network on an SLZB-06M and a handful of sensors exposed to Apple Home through the HomeKit Bridge integration

It works well most days. But living with it has shown me exactly where the gaps are.

Where my hub setup falls short today
• No say in which device is the hub. Apple picks it for you. When my HomePod mini had a Wi-Fi hiccup, remote control and a couple of automations stalled until the Apple TV took over.
• Thread is a black box. Both devices are Thread border routers, but the Home app tells me almost nothing about which one my Matter over Thread devices are actually using or how healthy that network is.
• No good wall control. I have an old iPad on a kitchen stand, but iPads can't act as a home hub under the newer Home architecture, so it's just a remote with a battery I keep forgetting to charge.
• Bridged devices feel second class. My Zigbee sensors show up fine, but there's no glanceable view that pulls everything together in one place.

What's been reported about Apple's new hub
Nothing is official until Apple announces it, so treat all of this as rumour for now:
• A roughly 6 to 7 inch square display
• Two versions: a countertop model with a design that reportedly nods to the old iMac G4, and a wall mount version that needs to stay plugged in
• A front camera for FaceTime, plus voice and face recognition to show personalised content to whoever walks up
• A new Siri AI based operating system with Apple's own apps built in, but no App Store at launch
• Price talk in the region of $350
• A new HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K expected alongside it

My wishlist
• Let me choose the primary hub. Even a simple "prefer this device" toggle would save a lot of head scratching.
• Thread border router and Matter controller built in, with real diagnostics. Show me which devices route through what.
• Local first. Automations should keep running when the internet drops, full stop.
• A wall mount without a dangling cable. Power over Ethernet would be a dream, a tidy in-wall option would be fine.
• A proper device dashboard, including Matter and bridged devices, not just Apple widgets.
• Privacy controls I can see. Face recognition processed on device and a physical way to kill the camera.
• A price that makes sense. If it lands near $350, it has to do a lot more than an Echo Show or Nest Hub to earn a spot on my counter.

Over to you
• Which device is your HomeKit hub right now: HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV?
• Anyone else running Home Assistant or Homebridge alongside Apple Home? How are you bridging things in?
• Day one buy, wait for reviews, or skip?
• If you could add one feature to Apple's hub, what would it be?

Curious to see what everyone's running. Drop your setup below, even if it's just one HomePod mini doing all the heavy lifting.

For transparency, I'm on the forum staff team here, but genuinely asking this as someone trying to sort out their own setup!