Which Apple devices are a home hub, and which have Thread?

'Apple Home hub' sounds like one question, but it is two. The first is which Apple devices can run your home: control while you are away, automations, sharing, notifications and camera recording. The second is which of those devices also gives your Thread accessories a network to join. The lists overlap, and they are not the same list. Apple's own product pages are loose enough about the difference that plenty of households have bought the wrong box.

Here are both lists, from Apple's model-specific wireless specifications, current as at August 2026.

The two lists

Apple names only three products as home hubs: HomePod, HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K. Everything else, including the iPhone the whole system is set up from, is a controller. A controller drives the home while you are standing in it; the hub is the always-on device that does the rest.

The Thread column is the one that catches people. Thread is the low-power mesh that battery accessories like sensors and locks increasingly run on, and it needs a border router in the house: a device that joins the Thread mesh to your normal network. In Apple's range, exactly four devices do that job. If your hub is any other row of the table, your Thread accessories have no network to join, and you will want either one of those four or a compatible third-party border router.

One more row deserves a word: Apple TV HD. Apple's current pages disagree about whether it still counts as a home hub, so we do not state it either way. It has no Thread radio in any case.

The A$100 step that decides whether you get Thread

The difference is silicon, not settings. Apple's wireless specification tables list Thread networking only for the Wi-Fi + Ethernet model, so no software update will ever add Thread to the cheaper box.

It is also worth knowing that both variants report the same model identifier, AppleTV14,1, in Settings. If you already own an Apple TV 4K (3rd generation) and want to know which one it is, check the A-number on the underside: A2843 has Thread, A2737 does not.

Thread also went backwards across generations. Every Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) has a Thread radio; the current line's entry model does not. Upgrading an older Apple TV 4K to the cheaper current one can quietly remove your border router.

A Thread iPhone is not a hub

Recent iPhones carry a Thread radio: Apple lists iPhone 15 Pro and later, and the radio has since spread beyond the Pro models, with the base iPhone 17 carrying it too. That has led to a persistent piece of bad advice: that a current iPhone can stand in for a hub.

Apple draws the line itself, in two consecutive sentences: 'To use automations, get notifications or remotely control your Thread-based accessories, set up a Thread-enabled home hub or use a compatible third-party Thread border router. You can also pair accessories to a Thread-enabled iPhone running iOS 18 or later.' In other words, the iPhone pairs; the hub or border router routes. An iPhone can add a Thread accessory and control it while you are home, and that is where its role ends.

One caveat from Apple worth repeating before you buy: a battery-powered Thread accessory may need a firmware update from its manufacturer before a Thread-enabled iPhone can pair it. That lands hardest on sensors and locks, exactly the products Thread suits best, and the update usually runs through the manufacturer's own app.

What to buy

If you want the shortest answer: the cheapest way into Apple Home with Thread is the HomePod mini at A$199. It is also the cheapest hub outright, so the Thread capability costs nothing extra.

If you are weighing up whether you need a hub at all, that depends on what you want the home to do rather than on any pairing requirement. And if your accessories are Matter rather than Thread, a current iPhone can add and control them locally with no hub, though sharing and away-from-home control still need one, and Apple states automations do too.

We do not sell Apple hardware, so take this as straight advice: buy the box that matches the columns you need, then come back for the accessories.