Your HomePod is about to become a whole lot less annoying

Macworld

If you use a streaming service other than Apple Music and find it annoying to constantly remind Siri of this fact, you may be excited to hear about an upcoming software update for the HomePod.

The upcoming HomePod Software 17.4, MacRumors reports, will feature what the site aptly describes as “a small but meaningful change.” Siri will gain the ability to learn a user’s preferred streaming service and automatically default to that service when commanded to play a song or other piece of streaming content.

Currently, if you’re a Pandora, Deezer, or YouTube Music subscriber, you have to either set it as the default in Settings (an option in the Home app that many users don’t know about) or laboriously mention your service of choice each time you ask the HomePod to play a song: “Hey Siri, play “Roadgame” by Kavinsky on Pandora.” It’s not a huge extra hassle, and even this is an improvement on the HomePod’s original insistence on using Apple Music, but it’s annoying and takes away much of the HomePod’s convenience. (Spotify doesn’t officially support Siri commands on HomePod, but there has been a workaround since the launch of iOS 17.)

But as of the release of HomePod Software 17.4, Siri on HomePod will become smart enough to learn this information, just as it does already on the iPhone and iPad. It isn’t entirely clear how this will work, but rather than basing it on repetition or the last service you selected, Siri will probably actively ask for your service of choice the next time you ask it to play something, because that’s what happens on iPhone. The release notes for the software update simply say:

“This update enables Siri to learn your preferred media service, so you no longer need to include the name of the media app in your request.”

HomePod Software 17.4 is likely to be released to the public sometime this week. To update your HomePod or HomePod mini, go to the Home app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, tap the three-dot menu in the top right, Home Settings, and Software Update. If the update is available, hit Update and follow the instructions. A white spinning light will be visible on your HomePod until the update is complete.

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