Apple’s new Apple TV 4K and HomeView both lean on Apple Intelligence descriptions of your camera clips, but the feature behind them is not on until you turn it on. Apple’s support document for the Home app says: “By default, Apple Intelligence is on for Reduced Notifications and off for Summarize Videos.”
Summarize Videos is the setting that turns HomeKit Secure Video camera activity into short text captions. Here is what you need, how to switch it on for every camera or just one, and what it sends off your devices.
What Summarize Videos does
Apple describes it simply: “For eligible iCloud+ users, Summarize Videos analyzes camera activity to create descriptive captions.” It goes hand in hand with clip search. Apple’s Home app page says Apple Intelligence “helps summarize activity from HomeKit Secure Video cameras and allows you to search for specific clips based on key moments.”
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
On the new hardware, Apple says Apple TV 4K offers “Apple Intelligence-generated camera activity video descriptions and summarized notifications,” and that with video descriptions, HomeView “helps users quickly understand what happened in a video clip without even watching it.”
What you need first
- A HomeKit Secure Video camera added to the Home app.
- An eligible iCloud+ plan. Apple says video descriptions “require setup using an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad and a subscription to an eligible iCloud+ plan.”
- A home owner with an Apple Intelligence iPhone or iPad. Apple’s support page says descriptions and search also require “the home owner to have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad and subscribe to an eligible iCloud+ plan.”
- A home hub. Apple lists “a compatible Home hub such as HomePod (2nd generation), HomePod mini, or Apple TV 4K with the latest operating system software.”
- The right role. “Homeowners and admins can turn either feature on or off at any time,” Apple says.
- Apple Intelligence turned on in Settings. “Turning off Apple Intelligence in the Settings app also turns off both features.”
How many cameras your iCloud+ plan covers
Video summaries are capped by plan. Apple’s usage limits document lists the counts:
| iCloud+ plan | Cameras with video summaries |
|---|---|
| 2TB | Up to 1 |
| 6TB | Up to 2 |
| 12TB | Up to 5 |
Apple adds that “Supported camera counts and other iCloud+ plan features may change over time.” For how this plays out with LG’s new cameras, see our breakdown of Home Collection cameras and iCloud+ plans.
Turn on Summarize Videos for all cameras
- Step 1: Open the Home app.
- Step 2: Tap the More button, then tap Home Settings.
- Step 3: Tap Apple Intelligence.
- Step 4: Tap Summarize Videos to turn it on.
Turn on Summarize Videos for one camera
If you only want captions on a specific camera, such as the front door, use the per-camera switch instead:
- Step 1: Open the Home app.
- Step 2: Tap the HomeKit Secure Video camera.
- Step 3: Tap Summarize Videos to turn it on.
The same steps turn it off again. With a plan that covers fewer cameras than you own, the per-camera switch lets you pick which ones get captions.
Reduced Notifications is already on
The other Apple Intelligence feature in the Home app works the opposite way. Apple says “Reduced Notifications provides a single alert summary instead of multiple alerts,” and it is on by default. If you prefer every alert separately, go to Home Settings, tap Apple Intelligence, then tap Reduced Notifications to turn it off.
What leaves your home
Turning on Summarize Videos means some footage goes to Apple’s servers. Apple says simple requests run on device, while “For complex requests, Apple Intelligence uses Private Cloud Compute (PCC).” It describes the camera flow in four steps:
- Your home devices analyze camera footage for activity.
- If they detect relevant activity, such as people, pets, or packages, they send the footage to PCC for further analysis.
- PCC generates captions to describe the activity.
- PCC sends the captions back to your home devices and permanently deletes the data from PCC.
Apple says “Even when PCC is used, your data is never stored or accessible to Apple.” It also notes that “The Home app stores all camera recordings with end-to-end encryption” and that “Cameras that don’t use Summarize Videos only analyze content on-device.”
Check what was sent with the Apple Intelligence Report
If you want a record, the Home app keeps one. In Home Settings, Apple says homeowners can:
- Create an Apple Intelligence Report to obtain a log of every request sent to PCC.
- Change how long the Home app keeps PCC requests.
- Turn off Apple Intelligence Reports.
That report is the easiest way to see how often your cameras are calling on the cloud after you switch the feature on.
Usage limits
Summaries also sit under Apple’s broader server limits. Apple says “Certain Apple Intelligence features that rely on server-side models are subject to daily usage limits,” and that expanded access “will be available for a fee in the future.”
For the new box that can act as your home hub, see our Apple TV 4K (4th generation) story.
