HomePod Gaining Support for Third-Party Music Services
Later this year, Apple is adding third-party music support to the HomePod, which will allow the speaker to work with services like Spotify and Pandora by default.
At the current time, third-party music services like Spotify can only be streamed on the HomePod using AirPlay and an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The new feature will presumably allow Spotify and other music services to be set as the default music service, letting users ask Siri to stream music by specifying "with Spotify" at the end of a request.
Apple didn't mention the tidbit while introducing its new software updates, but the feature was highlighted when Apple was introducing new HomeKit features.
In a HomeKit slide covering the new Home app, there's an icon of the HomePod along that reads "third-party music services." Support for third-party music services was rumored ahead of the release of iOS 14, with Bloomberg suggesting Apple would implement the feature.
The new HomePod software is not available yet, so third-party music service support won't be able to be tested at this time. The HomePod is also getting a new option that will allow Siri to announce when a HomeKit-compatible doorbell is rung.
(Thanks, Chris!)
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Top Rated Comments
Which begs the question... What is the point of HomePod if Apple isn't bringing any innovation to the market?
Fanboys like you are annoying. I love Apple, but I'm not a blind sheep applauding a failing product that even Apple does not know what to do with anymore.
Alexa is a train wreck
Never heard of your problem. You can reset them
no. And use headphones at the beach, no one wants to hear your music
not sure if I catch your meaning. HomePod is a great device, I love Apple Music and Homekit. Doesn't this just open it to more people? Is that a bad thing?
HomePod is a platform (it runs a scaled down version of tvOS) and it should be able to stream from services other than Apple Music.
Being able to play "free" Amazon Prime Music would make HomePod more attractive for those that do not like Alexa's privacy policy.