How to AirPlay Audio From Your Mac to HomePod

Monday February 12, 2018 12:13 PM PST by Juli Clover
To play music from third-party music services like Spotify to your HomePod, you don't need an iOS device -- a Mac will work too. You can send any audio playing on your Mac right to your HomePod, and not just audio from iTunes.

To AirPlay from Mac to HomePod, your Mac and your HomePod need to be on the same Wi-Fi network.


Make Sure Volume is Enabled in Menu Bar


It's easiest to AirPlay sound to the HomePod from a Mac using the menu bar on your Mac, but to do that, you need to make sure your audio settings are readily accessible. By default, audio settings aren't available on the menu bar, so you'll need to fix that.

  1. Open up System Preferences.

  2. Choose Sound.

  3. Select the "Output" tab.

  4. Check the "Show volume in menu bar" box.

While it's easiest to use the menu bar, you can actually AirPlay to the HomePod using the Sound section of System Preferences. To do so, double click on the HomePod, which should be named after the room that it's in.

Selecting HomePod as an Audio Output Device from the Menu Bar


Once sound controls are accessible from the menu bar, it's simple to route the sound from your Mac to the HomePod.

  1. Click on the volume button in the menu bar.

  2. Under the "Output Device" list, choose the HomePod, which is labeled as the room that it's in. Mine is Office 2, because I have two AirPlay devices in my office.

With the HomePod selected as the audio output device, all audio from your Mac will be sent to the HomePod. You can't pick and choose -- every sound from your Mac will be played on the HomePod instead of on your Mac's speakers.

When using the HomePod this way, as an external speaker for the Mac, there's no option to use Siri to do things like skip songs. tYou'll need to control playback on your Mac, but you can use the physical controls on the HomePod to adjust volume.

AirPlaying from iTunes


For the most part, you need to use the audio output settings to AirPlay music from a third-party service to the Mac, but if you're playing content from iTunes, you can use the built-in iTunes AirPlay controls.

  1. Open iTunes.

  2. Play a song from Apple Music or your music library.

  3. In iTunes, click on the icon.

  4. Select the HomePod icon.

Because you can play Apple Music and iCloud Music Library content directly on the HomePod, there's probably not much need to AirPlay from iTunes to the HomePod, but the option is there if you need it.

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37 comments


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keysofanxiety
18 weeks ago

I bought a Sonos One today. Now I can play music from my phone, Mac and even my PC. The sound is phenomenal and it’s so good not worrying about having to deal with a dumb AI 99% of the time. I asked Alexa “how old was Kurt Cobain when he died?”. She replied with his age and even the cause of death. This was Siri’s response to the same question...


Sounds like Siri misheard you. I tried the first time and it came up with this.



Not saying you’re a liar. Just saying it does pick up the right answer for this question, but on this occasion wasn’t picking up your speech correctly.

Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
ChrisMoBro
18 weeks ago
I bought a Sonos One today. Now I can play music from my phone, Mac and even my PC. The sound is phenomenal and it’s so good not worrying about having to deal with a dumb AI 99% of the time. I asked Alexa “how old was Kurt Cobain when he died?”. She replied with his age and even the cause of death. This was Siri’s response to the same question...

Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
haralds
18 weeks ago
Look at Rogue Amoeba's AirFoil to capture audio from an app or the system and redirect it to one or more AirPlay speakers while keeping the sound synchronized.
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
keysofanxiety
18 weeks ago

For over a year I've been asking Siri how far away Kelnowa, BC is and it still can't figure it out. Google has no issues. Can you give it a try?


Nailed it.

Who wants to go to Canada anyway? :p















Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
loby
18 weeks ago



Because you can play Apple Music and iCloud Music Library content directly on the HomePod, there's probably not much need to AirPlay from iTunes to the HomePod, but the option is there if you need it.

Article Link: How to AirPlay Audio From Your Mac to HomePod ('//www.macrumors.com/how-to/airplay-audio-from-mac-to-homepod/')


Uh...not everyone wants to use iCloud or Apple Music, especially to play or store their music.

Airplay “is” a good feature “and” there “is” a need for this feature.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
jclo
18 weeks ago

So I read an article today that the homepod doesn't even have Bluetooth.. is this for real? You can only airplay to the device?


Yes, this is true. You can't connect via Bluetooth.
[doublepost=1518483247][/doublepost]

Does this mean any sound, html 5 videos in safari, etc, play on the HomePod?


Yes.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
FilipeTeixeira
18 weeks ago

I bought a Sonos One today. Now I can play music from my phone, Mac and even my PC. The sound is phenomenal and it’s so good not worrying about having to deal with a dumb AI 99% of the time. I asked Alexa “how old was Kurt Cobain when he died?”. She replied with his age and even the cause of death. This was Siri’s response to the same question...


You just forgot to mention that you need a separate app to play music from all those devices. So no airplay for now.
Rating: 1 Votes
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amyers
18 weeks ago
Is there a way to make it say "HomePod" and not "Office (2)" (like yours) or "Living Room (2)" (like mine)?
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
mr.steevo
18 weeks ago

Sounds like Siri misheard you. I tried the first time and it came up with this.



Not saying you’re a liar. Just saying it does pick up the right answer for this question, but on this occasion wasn’t picking up your speech correctly.



For over a year I've been asking Siri how far away Kelnowa, BC is and it still can't figure it out. Google has no issues. Can you give it a try?
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
FilipeTeixeira
18 weeks ago

I work for Apple, Airplay support was released for most 2011 macs. Also the Iphone 4 supported Airplay.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201343 You might want to get your facts straight. And even 2009 macs had "fast processors". Airparrot works fine for Airplay to get past the "limitations.


I'm naturally talking about Airplay 2. Actually on apple's website, they mention that Airplay 2 requires a 2012 or newer Macbook Pro. So I'm getting my facts straight.
Also your link points to Airplay to stream Video, which is odd as we're talking about Audio here.
https://www.apple.com/homepod/specs/
"Peer-to-peer AirPlay requires a Mac (2012 or later) with OS X Yosemite or later"

The question remains. Will older devices still work with Airplay 2? Meaning that Airplay 2 has some sort of backward compatibility with Airplay 1?
Rating: 1 Votes
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