One of the main uses for Siri on HomePod is to control your Apple Music collection. There are ‌Siri‌ voice commands for accessing content like playlists, genres, moods, liking or disliking songs, playing more music based on something you've heard, starting a new radio station, and much more.

Because the list of ‌Siri‌ commands is so extensive, this guide won't be covering every possible option and genre supported by available through ‌Siri‌, but it should serve as a good starting point when getting to know what exactly your ‌HomePod‌ can do with your ‌Apple Music‌ library.

Playlists and Library

Your playlists may be the content you'll interact with most often in ‌Apple Music‌, and ‌Siri‌ on ‌HomePod‌ can play any ‌Apple Music‌ playlist you've made in the past on an iOS device or Mac. ‌Siri‌ can also play ‌Apple Music‌'s personally curated mix playlists.

homepod book time playlist
For items in your library, use the "play my" command and ‌Siri‌ will play albums and songs already added to your library. For everything else, ‌Siri‌ will play any songs available on ‌Apple Music‌, even if they aren't in your library yet.

  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play my Book Time playlist."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, shuffle my Book Time playlist."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, add this song to my Book Time playlist."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, add this to my library."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play My New Music Mix."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play the A-List Pop playlist."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play my music from Sam Smith."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play the newest music from Vance Joy."

Genres, Moods, and Radio

‌Siri‌ can understand a wide range of commands requesting various musical genres and moods found in ‌Apple Music‌. You can find some of these moods in ‌Apple Music‌ itself by navigating to the Browse tab, tapping Playlists, then looking through all of the Activities and Moods. You can also request songs based on decades, specific years, and exact dates. We've compiled a few examples below to get you started.

homepod how to activities image

  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play some recent pop music."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play some chill music."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play some romantic music."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play some music to dance to."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play the best songs from the '90s."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play the top 10 songs from 1986."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play the top song from April 17, 1992."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, create a radio station based on The Killers."

Here are some examples of more keywords that you could enter into the above commands:

  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Lazy
  • Somber
  • Calm
  • Fun
  • Romance
  • Weekend
  • Cooking
  • Party
  • Workout
  • Focus
  • Motivation
  • Bedtime

You'll also find the same results for essentially every genre, like Country, Alternative, Blues, and others.

General Controls

There are multiple commands you can relay to ‌Siri‌ to control music playback, with some examples below.

  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play music."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, pause."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, skip this song."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, skip forward 30 seconds."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, jump back 10 seconds."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, previous track."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, raise/lower the volume."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, increase the volume to 50 percent."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, turn on repeat."

Other Commands

  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play Party in the USA."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, I like/dislike this."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, what song is this?"
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, what was the last song called?"
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, who sings this?"
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, who is the drummer in this?"
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, what year is this song from?"
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, how many songs are on this album?"
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play more like this."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, after this play Rolling in the Deep."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, play some Florence and the Machine."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, tell me more about this artist."
  • "Hey ‌Siri‌, I want to hear the live version of this song."

If you ever want to revisit the playlists and radio stations that ‌Siri‌ creates for you through voice commands on ‌HomePod‌, head over to the For You tab in ‌Apple Music‌. If you scroll down a bit, you should see "Recently Played" filled with the content that ‌Siri‌ played on ‌HomePod‌.

recently played apple music
If you have any other useful ‌Siri‌ commands we didn't mention, be sure to share them in the comments.

Related Roundup: HomePod
Buyer's Guide: HomePod (Buy Now)

Top Rated Comments

justperry Avatar
80 months ago
Too many Homepod articles to my liking lately, and no, I don't read these HP articles, just think MR is overdoing it.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Delgibbons Avatar
80 months ago
I appreciate guides, but if Siri worked correctly we wouldn’t need them.

What happened to the promise of natural language recognition? Siri should understand us — we shouldn’t have to memorize phrases specifically to Siri’s liking.
Ha! Homepod is a bit like one of those old text adventures.

"Pick up key"

"Use key in lock"

:D
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Naaaaak Avatar
80 months ago
I appreciate guides, but if Siri worked correctly we wouldn’t need them.

What happened to the promise of natural language recognition? Siri should understand us — we shouldn’t have to memorize phrases specifically to Siri’s liking.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wanted797 Avatar
80 months ago
Can I ask Siri when MacRumors will be doing a story that’s not about HomePod?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jsmith189 Avatar
80 months ago
Genres/years don't work internationally anymore.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sorry-but-i-dont-know-the-historical-music-charts-for-your-country.2105322/

Can I ask Siri when MacRumors will be doing a story that’s not about HomePod?
God forbid an Apple website talk about the new Apple product!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Doomstare Avatar
80 months ago
If you have the Messages access enabled you can ask Siri to “share this song” with someone
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

reset password request iphone

Warning: Apple Users Targeted in Phishing Attack Involving Rapid Password Reset Requests

Tuesday March 26, 2024 4:34 pm PDT by
Phishing attacks taking advantage of Apple's password reset feature have become increasingly common, according to a report from KrebsOnSecurity. Multiple Apple users have been targeted in an attack that bombards them with an endless stream of notifications or multi-factor authentication (MFA) messages in an attempt to cause panic so they'll respond favorably to social engineering. An...
Generic iOS 18 Feature Purple

iOS 18: What to Expect From 'Biggest' Update in iPhone's History

Wednesday March 27, 2024 11:10 am PDT by
At least some Apple software engineers continue to believe that iOS 18 will be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. "The iOS 18 update is expected to be the most ambitious overhaul of the iPhone's software in its history, according to people working on the upgrade," wrote Gurman, in a r...
maxresdefault

Apple to Launch New iPad Pro and iPad Air Models in May

Thursday March 28, 2024 11:07 am PDT by
Apple will introduce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models in early May, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman previously suggested the new iPads would come out in March, and then April, but the timeline has been pushed back once again. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Apple is working on updates to both the iPad Pro and iPad Air models. The iPad Pro models will...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces WWDC 2024 Event for June 10 to 14

Tuesday March 26, 2024 10:02 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its 35th annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 10 to Friday, June 14. As with WWDC events since 2020, WWDC 2024 will be an online event that is open to all developers at no cost. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. WWDC 2024 will include online sessions and labs so that developers can learn about new...
apple maps 3d feature

Apple Maps May Gain Custom Routes With iOS 18

Tuesday March 26, 2024 3:10 pm PDT by
Apple may be planning to add support for "custom routes" in Apple Maps in iOS 18, according to code reviewed by MacRumors. Apple Maps does not currently offer a way to input self-selected routes, with Maps users limited to Apple's pre-selected options, but that may change in iOS 18. Apple has pushed an iOS 18 file to its maps backend labeled "CustomRouteCreation." While not much is revealed...
General iOS 17 Feature Orange Purple

Apple Releases Revised Versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 With Updated Build Number

Wednesday March 27, 2024 5:59 am PDT by
Apple on late Tuesday released revised versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 with an updated build number of 21E237, according to MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The updates previously had a build number of 21E236. The revised updates are available for all iPhone and iPad models that are compatible with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, but they can only be installed via the Finder app on macOS...
applephilschiller

Apple's Phil Schiller Works 80 Hours a Week Overseeing App Store

Wednesday March 27, 2024 2:03 pm PDT by
With the App Store and app ecosystem undergoing major changes in the European Union, The Wall Street Journal today shared a profile on App Store chief Phil Schiller, who is responsible for the App Store. Though Schiller transitioned from marketing chief to "Apple Fellow" in 2020 to take a step back from Apple and spend more time on personal projects and friends, he is reportedly working...