Enable Lossless Audio and Dolby Atmos on Your HomePods
This week’s release of iOS 15.1 was accompanied by a HomePod 15.1 software update that brings Apple’s new higher-fidelity audio formats to its smart speaker family.
In fact, the HomePod 15.1 update surprised us with the addition of Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos support for the now-discontinued full-sized HomePod. It’s a nice touch that shows what the original HomePod is still capable of, and provides some extra hope that Apple will continue this trend for those who invested in the more expensive speaker.
The entire HomePod family also gains support for Lossless audio, and while we’re not convinced that this will matter to most folks, especially on the more sonically challenged HomePod mini, we can’t argue with the idea of getting the best audio quality possible.
Note that these features aren’t necessarily enabled automatically — we’ve heard mixed reports on this — and the process for checking your settings is a bit inscrutable, as it requires a trip into a corner of the Home app that you probably don’t visit very often. Here’s how to check if Lossless and Dolby Atmos are enabled for your HomePods:
- Open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap the house icon in the top-right corner.
- Near the bottom of the menu that appears, tap Home Settings.
- Under People, tap your name.
- Under Media, tap Apple Music.
- Ensure that Lossless Audio and Dolby Atmos are both switched on.
As the above steps imply, each user may also need to check this for themselves, as Apple has made this a user-specific setting, for whatever reason; as with things like Listening History your HomePods will use voice recognition to associate each user with their personal Apple Music account.