Apple’s smart speaker, the HomePod Mini, turned out to be a mysterious sensor that for the moment seems dysfunctional. Now eyes are turned to Apple, which is expected to explain what this sensor does.

It turns out that Apple has a mysterious temperature sensor on its HomePod Mini smart speaker that seems to be doing nothing at the moment. The sensor was spotted by iFixit, which dismantled the device at Bloomberg’s request.

According to Bloomberg, “anonymous” sources at Apple involved in the development of the HomePod Mini discussed what to use this sensor for during the development phase, but no conclusions were reached.

The tiny sensor, which measures 1.5 x 1.5mm, is located at the bottom of the device, close to the power cord. The name of the sensor was developed by HDC2010 and Texas Instruments.

Apple has not responded to questions about the sensor. However, the sensor is expected to become functional with a software update to be released soon. For example, with the help of this sensor, there may be functions such as automatic operation of the smart air conditioner or opening the boiler according to the ambient temperature.