Apple introduces AI camera summaries with restrictive iCloud+ limits

Apple is introducing a new feature in iOS 27 for the Home app that uses Apple Intelligence to generate text summaries of activity captured by security cameras. These summaries can identify people, animals, vehicles, and packages to provide descriptions of motion events.

However, the rollout has faced criticism due to a significant discrepancy between iCloud+ storage tiers and the number of cameras supported for AI summaries. While the 2TB iCloud+ plan allows for unlimited HomeKit Secure Video recordings, it only permits AI-generated summaries for a single camera. To use the feature on more cameras, users must upgrade to much more expensive tiers: the 6TB plan ($29.99/month) supports two cameras, and the 12TB plan ($59.99/month) supports up to five.

This pricing structure has caused frustration among users, particularly those who already subscribe to high-capacity plans like Apple One Premier, which includes 2TB of storage and is therefore limited to one AI-enabled camera. Apple has noted that the number of supported cameras and plan features may change over time.