Apple is now letting Safari run on HomeView as well, a device that is operated mainly by voice and has a square 7-inch display. The WebKit team published a guide for web developers on this on November 13, 2026. According to WebKit, nothing changes for most sites, but there may be a few snags in some places.
Safari is used there for quick searches, opening links, and cooking from recipes. Apple does not state a price or a list of countries on the product page, and Siri AI is initially available there in English. Apple has not announced a launch in Germany.
What changes for your website?
The most important change concerns height. Some pages assume that the viewport is always taller than 600 pixels, but on HomeView it is shorter. Fixed header and footer areas then leave little room for the content, and a window that is taller than the viewport may no longer be closable.
As a remedy for such windows, the post on the WebKit blog suggests the declarations max-height: 90svh and overflow-y: auto. To test, you set 448 × 364 pixels in Safari's Responsive Design Mode or turn a smartphone to landscape orientation.
How to test your page's height
Four steps using the test value that WebKit gives for HomeView
- Open the viewStart Responsive Design Mode in Safari
- Set the sizeSet the viewport to 448 × 364 pixels
- Click through the pageCheck header and footer, forms, and windows
- Adjust windowsSet max-height: 90svh and overflow-y: auto
The value 448×364 is a test value from the WebKit blog, not a device dimension.
Sources: WebKit Blog
The second area is the browser identifier, the user agent. Safari on HomeView identifies itself with an iOS identifier, even though the device is not an iPhone. WebKit advises against checking the identifier and recommends testing for the desired feature directly. For advertising an app, the post mentions Smart App Banners, where Safari itself decides whether a banner makes sense on the device.
What does the cooking view offer?
Safari recognizes recipe pages and shows their steps in a clear view. To do so, the browser reads structured data, namely the schema.org type Recipe as JSON-LD. The example in the post contains name, image, prepTime (e.g. PT15M), cookTime (PT1H20M), recipeYield, recipeIngredient, and recipeInstructions with individual HowToStep entries. The post does not say which fields are mandatory.
For videos, WebKit recommends subtitles as WebVTT files in track elements. Because the device works with voice, real buttons, links, and form fields with unambiguous labels also help, as do large tap targets and flexible layouts.
What this means for you
Test the height first: open your homepage, a form, and every window at 448 × 364 pixels and check whether the header and footer push out the content and whether every window can be closed. This takes a few minutes and also helps you with smartphones in landscape orientation.
Then search your code and your plug-ins for places that depend on the browser identifier, such as redirects to an app page for iOS. If you run a recipe blog, it's best to check whether your plug-in outputs the Recipe type as JSON-LD. Our assessment: whether HomeView arrives in Germany is open, so a major overhaul isn't worthwhile, but the height test costs almost nothing.
The WebKit team published the post on November 13, 2026.
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