By Julie Clover
Along with iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, and tvOS 17.4, Apple plans to release HomePod 17.4 software update, which adds a small but significant change to Siri.
Siri will be able to find out which media service the user prefers, which means that there will be no need to specify the application name when requesting Siri to play content or go through the process of installing a third-party application by default.
HomePod Users can play songs, podcasts, audiobooks and other media using supported third-party apps via Siri request for quite some time, but it needed to be configured in the Settings section of the Home app. This option has been hidden, so some HomePod users may have forgotten that this feature is even available. From Apple's release notes:
This update lets Siri know your preferred media service, so you no longer have to include the name of the media app in your request.
Using HomePod 17.4, Siri will learn preferences and use those preferences to select applications. For example, if you have YouTube Music, you won't need to say “Play [song title] on YouTube Music” to bypass Apple Music, and you won't need to set YouTube Music as the default music service in the Home app.
Siri already works this way on iPhone and iPad and prompts users for their preferred app the first time they play content. Like Siri has been updated to automatically set preferences, Apple has removed the Home App option that allows users to choose a default media service.
Third-party apps that work directly with HomePod include YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn and iHeartRadio. Music streaming services must support HomePod for this function to work, but not everyone does this. Please note that the popular music service Spotify can play content via Siri request for HomePod, but it uses iPhone for this.
Together with Siri support for your preferred music service HomePod Update 17.4 also includes performance and stability improvements. HomePod Software version 17.4 will be released this week.
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