Apple Says HomePod 2 Also Works as Default Speaker With Select Macs

This is one of the most confusing and least well understood Apple product issues ever. From what I gather (and I may be wrong), these are the facts:

AirPlay 1 had unusable lag for live applications (eg gaming, which can’t delay/buffer to sync with the lag), something having to do with wifi limitations. AirPlay 2 brought this lag under a second, which is still unusable for most people.

Bluetooth, the industry standard here, also has some lag, but much less than AirPlay 2.

HomePods have always had bluetooth but Apple never enabled it for audio output, it was only used for config or something. Understandably annoying.

So what changed now? Either the AirPlay protocol has changed again to reduce the lag further, or bluetooth is being enabled for audio. If it’s tied to wifi 6e, probably the former.

Any insight here would be appreciated.

So the original HomePod has wifi 5, the HomePod 2 actually went backwards to wifi 4, and somehow only the newer one gets this feature? The original mini also has wifi 4, while the new mini 2 gets wifi 6E. Seriously, whats the logic here? All these speakers can already work in stereo pairs, so wifi speed clearly isnt the problem. Sure, there might be some hardware limitation, but apple hasnt explained anything. Looks more like another artifical software restriction to push ppl into buying newer hardware. Perfectly good speakers being left behind for no obvious reason. Pretty dissapointing, but hardly suprising from apple these days.

Wouldn’t be surprised if this’ll work on any laptop without Wifi 6E in 3 months when the protocol is reverse engineered with AI.

The 2nd gen HomePod has 802.11n, just like the 1st gen mini. Why would the mini not work for this? Is it the S7 vs S5 chip in them?

Mac will then create a point to point connection between the Mac and the HomePods like Apple TV already does it with current HomePods

Yeah, exactly what I thought. Just like the HomePods do with an Apple TV.
Thanks for verifying this.

If the router doesn't support 6E, the devices can't connect to the network with 6E, so the benefits of 6E are not there, they will fall back to 6, 5 or whatever.

Actually I checked that with Apple and no, your router doesn't need to be with 6E, it's your Mac/MacBook/Mac mini that needs to be 6E.

Mac will then create a point to point connection between the Mac and the HomePods like Apple TV already does it with current HomePods