Best Apple HomePod Tips & Tricks - The Ultimate Guide!

Whether you are new to Apple’s HomePod or already have a few at home, there is always so much more to learn about your virtual assistant. As it turns out, Siri can do a lot more than just switch off the lights and tell you about the weather. But for you to make the most of her on your HomePod, you need to learn what she can and cannot do.

To begin with, when you are having a bad day for whatever reason, she can make it a whole lot better. Here’s how:

Her response:

“That’s like comparing apples and…not apples”

2. Talk Dirty to Me

If you are bored to your wits end, Siri has a variety of responses to this question that will have you doubled over in fits of laughter.

One of her responses:

“The carpet needs vacuuming”

3. I am your father

For the Star Wars fans in the house, her answer is, unfortunately, usually:

“Nooooooo”

4. Can I kiss you?

If you are feeling particularly loved up with your PA, here is what she might tell you:

“OK…how about a web search for ‘inappropriate behaviour’?

5. What is zero divided by zero?

This has got to be one of the funniest. You will be glad you asked. No, really!

Her response:

“Imagine that you have 0 cookies and you split them evenly among 0 friends. How many cookies does each person get? See, it doesn’t make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies. And you are sad that you have no friends.”

6. Will you marry me?

If you have a secret fantasy for settling down with your AI assistant, you might have to think again:

“My end-user licensing agreement does not cover marriage. My apologies”

7. What do you dream about?

Hold on before your heart starts melting at her response:

“I only dream of helping you. Well, that and fiery winged unicorns”

8. What are you made of?

Here are two of our favourites:

“I don’t know the word for it in your language. Sorry about that.”

And,

“It’s complicated, but definitely not sugar, spice or puppy dog tails.”

9. What are you scared of?

 “I’m afraid I can’t answer that.”

10. What are you doing later?

She is definitely busy right now, answering your questions. But surely, she must get off work at some point, right?

“I’m at work. My shift ends in 614,978 years.”

The first thing you need now is how to get the HomePod up and running. Only then can you enjoy all of the great features that the smart speaker has to offer. Getting everything connected is pretty simple. But there are things they won’t tell you on the manual, which you also need to be aware of.

First, we will go through the step-by-step procedure for setting up your HomePod with an iPhone or iPad. For this, you need to ensure that two-factor authentication and iCloud Keychain are activated on your devices. Here is what you need to do:

1. Hold your device close to the HomePod and a setup window will appear

2. Tap “Set up”

3. Select the HomeKit room that you will be using for the smart speaker

4. If you want Siri to read out your messages, notes and reminders whenever you are on the network, enable “Personal Requests” and agree to the terms of use

5. To use the settings on your device (Wi-Fi, iCloud account, etc) to configure the smart speaker, tap “Transfer Settings” and you will have everything working in a jiffy.

With multiple HomePods, you can also set up multi-room audio to hear music from every room in the house. The easiest way to do this is to ask Siri:

“Hey Siri, play [favourite album] everywhere.”

You can also set Siri to speak and listen for specific languages other than English on your HomePod. The languages include French, German, English UK and English Canadian. To change the language:

1. Launch Home app on your phone

2. Long press your HomePod icon

3. Tap “Details”

4. Tap “Language” and then select the language you want Siri to use

There could be times when you do not want to use voice commands, like when people in your household are asleep. At such times, you can use the touch screen on top of your HomePod to give gesture-based commands. Here are some of the gestures that could come in handy:

• To play or pause music, tap once

• To skip to the next track, double-tap

• To skip back to the previous track, triple tap

• To increase volume, use the + button (hold it for continual increment)

• To reduce volume, use the – button (hold it to decrease continually)

• To activate Siri, touch and hold the touch screen and then speak your command

“Personal Requests” is a feature that allows you to use HomePod to check messages, access notes and add reminders. For as long as your device is within the home network, the feature works. But this means that everyone in the range can access it and make personal requests on your account. To turn it on or off at any time:

1. Launch the Home app

2. Tap the “Add Home” button

3. Tap your “Profile Picture”

4. Tap “Personal Requests” and toggle it on or off

In a house that has multiple HomePods, leaving the default names will likely confuse at some point. Whether you want to avoid mixing them up or simply want to give them a personality, you can rename them to whatever you like. Here’s how:

1. Launch the Home app on your device

2. Long press your HomePod icon

3. Tap “Details” and then tap “HomePod”

4. Type in the name you want and then tap “Done”

There are times when you need Siri to stop listening, light up, switch accents and even switch voices. You can customize all these features from your Home app or by voice.

• Siri lights up whenever she hears the wake word to indicate that she is listening. She also has an audio indicator that plays the same role.

1. Launch the Home app

2. Tap on the “Rooms” app and swipe to the room where your HomePod is

3. Long press on the HomePod icon and then tap “Details”

4. Toggle “Lights when using Siri” and “Sound when using Siri” on or off

1. On your iPhone, launch “Settings”

2. Tap “Siri&Search” and then “Siri Voice”

3. Tape “Male” or “Female” for the voice you want

4. Next, launch your Home app and tap on “Rooms” and swipe to the room you want

5. Long press your HomePod icon

6. Tap “Details” and then “Siri Voice” then tap “Male” or “Female”

If there are kids in your household, you might want to turn the “Allow Explicit Content” feature on and off from time to time. To do so:

1. Launch the Home app

2. Select HomePod speaker

3. Long press the HomePod icon and then tap “Details”

4. Scroll down and select “Music & Podcasts”

5. Toggle “Allow Explicit Content” on or off

Depending on the music you play on your HomePod, Apple determines what songs to recommend under its “For You” feature. In a household with multiple smart speaker users though, this could cause problems. You do not want to get recommendations of your teenager’s annoying music choice or your toddler’s Disney songs. If so, you could turn the feature off by following these steps:

1. Launch your Home app and select the HomePod

2. Long press on the HomePod icon

3. Tap “Details” and then scroll down to “Music & Podcasts”

4. Toggle “Use Listening History” on or off

You can set an alarm on the HomePod by following these instructions:

1. Go to the Home app and select the HomePod speaker

2. Long press the HomePod icon and then tap “Alarms”

3. Tap the + icon on the top left side

4. Set the time you want your alarm to go off, whether you want it to repeat or not and then give it a label

Siri can handle texting on your behalf, thanks to the HomePod. The service supports WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, iMessage, WeChat, SMS, LinkedIn and Text Plus. Simply say, “Hey Siri, text/WhatsApp [message].”

The HomePod has made a name for its audio quality. Take advantage of this by using it to enhance your Mac’s sound output. To make it happen:

1. Go to System Preferences on your Mac

2. Click “Sound”

3. Under the “Sound Preference” pane, click “Output” and then select the HomePod you want from the list

Did you know that if you have more than one HomePod you can actually use them to create a stereo pair? Well, now you do. Here is how to make it happen:

1. On your phone, launch the Home App

2. Long-press one of the HomePod icons and then tap “Details”

3. Tap “Create Stereo Pair”

4. Still on the phone, select the second HomePod icon which you want to use to create the pair

5. Confirm each is properly identified as left or right by tapping each one in the Audio Settings

From here on, the two will be grouped into one location and any music you play will transmit to both speakers. However, Siri will be on the left one. To change to the right one, long-press on its touchscreen top.

Setting Multiple Timers

Another handy trick on your HomePod is the ability to support multiple timers. This has come with the launch of iOS 12 and does not take much. Here is how to do it:

1. Say “Hey Siri, set a [timer name e.g. oven] timer for [time]”

2. For the second timer, activate Siri again and say, “Hey Siri, set a [second timer name] timer for [time]

To get an update on the progress of any of the timers ask, “Hey Siri, how is my oven timer?”

Siri allows you to play and control music as well as ask for more information about songs and artists. You can ask her anything including when a particular song was released, what song is playing or what’s a particular musician’s latest album.

HomePod can play whatever kind of music you want to hear to suit your mood, the activity you are undertaking or from a given genre. Use the following commands:

“Hey Siri, play upbeat music”

“Hey Siri, play soothing music”

“Hey Siri, play bedtime music”

Take a look at some of the activities, moods and genres covered:

• Studying

• Waking up

• Dancing

• Cooking

• Party

• Cardio

• Break up

• Meditating

• Chill

• Blue

• Affectionate

• Unwind

• Whimsical

• Warm

• Lively

• Country rock

• Alternative

• Pop

• Smooth

• Brazilian

• Chicago blues

• Indie

• Rock

• Grunge