Apple Clarifies How Siri Music Service Settings Work in iOS 14.5

iOS 14.5 includes a feature that lets users select a specific music service to use with Siri, with the options including third-party services like Spotify in addition to Apple Music.

siri choose music service
Several reports have referred to this as a feature that allows a user to select a default streaming music service, including our own, but Apple today told TechCrunch that the option is a bit more nuanced than a simple default music toggle.

There is no option to choose a music service that will be selected every time, with Apple instead using ‌Siri‌ intelligence. ‌Siri‌ will learn from your listening habits and the music selection process will improve over time. If you always ask ‌Siri‌ to select Spotify, for example, Spotify will be the default, but you can also change it in the future.

To be clear, when asking ‌Siri‌ to play a song in Spotify in iOS 14.5, it is not setting it as the "default," with Apple clarifying because the company does not want users to be confused if ‌Siri‌ asks again for your preferences in the future.

siri choose audio apps
‌Siri‌ will learn your preferences for all types of audio content rather than just music. It will let you open podcasts in Apple Podcasts or a third-party podcasts app, and let you choose a specific audiobook app if you listen to audiobooks.

‌Siri‌ offers up a list of audio apps that you have installed whenever you make a content request, and that choice will dictate ‌Siri‌'s behavior going forward, but ‌Siri‌ may ask again in the future and even when a preferred audio option has been selected, it can be changed by asking for a different app. If you've selected Spotify, for example, but want to swap to ‌Apple Music‌, you can say "Hey ‌Siri‌, play [song] in ‌Apple Music‌."

Apple has been improving the ‌Siri‌ audio request feature throughout the beta, and the third beta refines the dialogs for app selection. App developers are able to choose participate in the ‌Siri‌ app selection feature by making their apps available as an option.

The ‌Siri‌ app selection feature will be available to everyone when iOS 14.5 launches this spring.

Related Forum: iOS 14

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Top Rated Comments

edgonzalez32 Avatar
55 months ago
I mean that's cool, but why not just let the user select. That's a lot workaround to not let people select what service they want to use.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Appleman3546 Avatar
55 months ago
Instead of giving users an option, there is "nuance." Apple couldn't just add a simple toggle. Seems like Apple is compromising only a little bit in light of the competitive pressure of EU's anti-trust investigation based on spotify.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Total Respray Avatar
55 months ago
Not impressed Apple. You gain good PR for finally opening up, but then put obstacles in the way when you could easily make it seamless.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chriscl Avatar
55 months ago
I don’t use Apple Music, I never have - I’ve never ever opened the app, it’s filed in the folder I set up holding all the other junk I never use.

i just want some magic method to use Spotify as my audio every single time. So, when I get into the car and my iPhone connects via Bluetooth, it automatically starts playing Spotify (and whatever I was listening to) rather than trying to connect to Apple Music and showing „Unknown Artist, Unknown Track“ because there is nothing there to play and my iPhone defaults to Apple Music every. single. time.

Same for swiping down the Control Centre and trying to press play; it often (unless I’ve been using Spotify very recently) tries to play something from Apple Music, which of course, does nothing as there’s no content there.

How hard can it be?
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
7thson Avatar
55 months ago
Apple is strong arming us into relying on Siri when a toggle/default would serve the purpose just fine. I have little faith in Siri understanding queries as it is and they want me to give it more responsibility?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JohnApples Avatar
55 months ago

I don’t use Apple Music, I never have - I’ve never ever opened the app, it’s filed in the folder I set up holding all the other junk I never use.

i just want some magic method to use Spotify as my audio every single time. So, when I get into the car and my iPhone connects via Bluetooth, it automatically starts playing Spotify (and whatever I was listening to) rather than trying to connect to Apple Music and showing „Unknown Artist, Unknown Track“ because there is nothing there to play and my iPhone defaults to Apple Music every. single. time.

Same for swiping down the Control Centre and trying to press play; it often (unless I’ve been using Spotify very recently) tries to play something from Apple Music, which of course, does nothing as there’s no content there.

How hard can it be?
Have you tried deleting the Music app off your phone? That may prevent CC or your car from defaulting to it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)