Apple Homepod tips and tricks
Aer a delay, the Apple Homepod has finally arrived and it’s the best-sounding smart speaker we’ve come across so far. If you’re a Homepod owner, read on for some handy tips to explore the extent of its skills…
Rename your Homepod You can’t rename Siri, but you can give your Homepod its own unique name. Fire up the Home app, long-press on your Homepod icon, then tap Details and there you’ll find a whole list of settings for your Homepod and Siri. The first one you can change is your Homepod’s name and location.
Personalise Siri Don’t like the sound of Siri’s voice? Stay on the Details page and you will see an option to choose between male or female voices. You can also pick between an American, Australian or British accent for Siri. Sign out/ reassign a new Apple ID to Homepod There are two ways to reset the Homepod. The first is by scrolling through the Home app down to the Details page and tap ‘Remove Accessory’. Or you can do it manually. Unplug the Homepod, then plug it back in. Tap the top of the Homepod and keep holding down until the white light turns red and Siri tells you to keep holding until it beeps. When you hear three beeps, it has been reset.
Play a song Siri and Homepod are at their best when playing music from Apple Music, so the more you use them, the more they will learn the music you like. If you’re already an Apple Music subscriber, simply ask it to play a song and it will play an artist or song you already know and like. Playing the right song Siri is intelligent enough to know that if you ask for “that RUN-DMC and Aerosmith song”, that you want Walk This Way (1986). Similarly, if you ask it to play I
Will Always Love You and it starts playing the Whitney Houston power ballad, tell it to play a different version and it will switch to the original 1973 Dolly Parton version instead.
Play Podcast episodes You don’t have to stick to music – you can also ask Homepod to play podcasts through the native IOS Podcasts app. There is a caveat: while you can select a specific podcast, it will only play the most recent episode from it.
Tap Homepod to control music You don’t always have to ask Siri to control music playback – you can simply tap the top of the Homepod instead. Tap the top once to pause, tap it again to play, and tap it twice to skip to the next track.
Turn on Siri response tone Wherever you place the Homepod, you might not have a clear line of sight to see the swirling lights of the animated waveform that indicate Siri has heard you. You can instead opt for the Homepod making a noise to show that Siri has heard your request. Go to the Details page in the Home app to toggle that option on or off.
Tap Homepod to control music Tap the top once to pause, tap again to play, and tap twice to skip to the next track.