LETTER OF THE MONTH
I am the proud owner of a handful of HomePod minis, and like so many others this sent me down the path of beginning my smart home. The ability for Siri to understand who’s speaking at any time is such a great feature. I would like to see Apple push this concept a little further in an iOS update, and give Siri the ability to understand which device belongs to which person. I live in a home with four people who have access to the Home app and four different Apple IDs. It would be great if I could say “Hey Siri, turn off my desk lamp” and it knew that this desk lamp belonged to me and would take the correct action. This could also be expanded to stop other users from controlling devices they shouldn’t. An example of this would be to lock out one of my sons from operating the devices in his brothers’ room.
CHARLES GILLESPIE
At present, Siri on the HomePod is limited to recognizing multiple users through HomePod Multiuser, which allows individuals in your household to do things like access their own Music library, run Siri shortcuts, or control HomeKit devices. But it doesn’t appear that you can set it up so that individuals can take ownership of devices within the Home app. If anyone has any suggestions or ways to work around this limitation, do let us know at letters @maclife.com.