The HomePod mini and HomeKit Are Getting These 7 Exciting New Features
Credit: Apple
During last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple rolled together the Apple TV, tvOS, and the HomePod into a single “Home” category, and this year’s WWDC makes it clear that defining these products as a group is part of Apple’s new strategy. While we didn’t see the rumoured “homeOS” announcement, Apple’s Yah Cason, Senior Engineer for HomeKit, did take the virtual stage to announce several other pretty significant changes coming to Apple’s home ecosystem — changes that could, in fact, be the first step toward a more unified homeOS.
At this point, however, Apple still refers to the Apple TV operating system as tvOS, and continues to coyly avoid any real mention of the operating system that runs on its HomePod speakers. That doesn’t mean that it’s not doing some pretty big things with the HomePod mini, however, and Cason had some pretty exciting things to share. Read on for 7 new things coming to the HomePod mini and Apple's Home ecosystem.
Siri Apple TV Commands on HomePod mini
With the full-sized HomePod discontinued and stock levels dwindling rapidly, all the focus now lands squarely on the HomePod mini, which is gaining the ability to work more seamlessly with the Apple TV 4K in a couple of interesting ways.
Firstly, it will now be possible to issue Siri voice commands for the Apple TV directly to the HomePod mini, allowing you to call up your favourite shows completely hands-free. The Apple TV can already handle an advanced set of Siri commands, including things like looking up your favourite shows by name, season, title, or even by guest star appearing in them. However, all of this power has traditionally been locked behind the button on the Siri Remote.
Now, with the iOS 15 series of updates to the HomePod mini and tvOS, you’ll be able to simply call out “Hey Siri” and ask it to play something on your Apple TV.
This will presumably work on the full-sized HomePod as well, although naturally, Apple doesn’t want to talk too much about its now-discontinued speaker.
HomePod mini as Apple TV Speakers
One of the biggest Apple mysteries of our time is why the company chose to add a new Home Theatre Audio experience to the Apple TV that required the use of a discontinued product.
While the full-sized HomePod sounds great with the Apple TV, enabling a rich Dolby Atmos soundscape, that’s not going to be an option for everyone, since the original HomePod is getting really hard to find, and we imagine that a replacement is probably still a long way off.
Unfortunately, when Apple debuted its Home Theatre Audio, allowing one or two HomePods to be used as default speakers, the smaller HomePod mini was left out of the experience entirely. You could use a HomePod mini as a standard AirPlay speaker, but you can’t set it up right now as a Default Audio Output — which also means that you can’t use the HomePod mini with the new eARC feature in the 2021 Apple TV 4K.
The good news is that Apple will be fixing this in tvOS 15 and the corresponding HomePod mini update.
While we’re pretty sure you’re not going to get Dolby Atmos out of a pair of HomePod mini speakers, you will be able to use them as the Default Audio Output from your Apple TV 4K. This will still provide better sound than simply using them via AirPlay, since like the same feature on the full-size HomePod, the system will be able to take advantage of computational audio to provide richer and more balanced sound.
Lossless Audio on HomePod mini
As promised, the HomePod mini will also be gaining support for lossless audio later this year. While the AirPlay 2 protocol technically has more than enough bandwidth to handle standard Lossless Audio, the problem seems to be that Apple sends audio over AirPlay 2 using the lossy 256kbps AAC codec. Presumably, the next HomePod, iOS, and tvOS updates will change this to use a lossless codec.
Whether you’ll be able to actually hear lossless audio on a HomePod mini is another question, but at least Apple is checking the box for those who want to ensure that the only limitation in their audio fidelity is the speaker itself.
‘For All of You’
Recognizing its place as a family device, Apple is adding a new “For All of You” section to its TV app on the Apple TV. This will provide a collection of suggested shows and movies based on everyone’s interests in the family, rather than just recommendations for the current user. You’ll also be able to filter these suggestions based on the family members who are watching — for example, including the kids for a family movie night, or excluding them for a less “PG” set of recommendations.
Siri on Third-Party Devices
Over the past few years, Apple has shown a remarkable willingness to embrace and extend third-party devices outside its own walled garden. It started with Apple Music on Android, which later extended to even Amazon Alexa speakers, and now it’s taking another big leap by offering Siri to third-party device manufacturers. It also looks like this will go beyond simply smart speakers, as Apple demoed the feature by showing an ecobee thermostat receiving a Siri command. Since the ecobee4 is already Alexa-enabled, it’s probably not a stretch to imagine the company adding Siri support to it as well. Obviously, it will still be up to individual manufacturers to add Siri support, but Apple seems to be making this as easy as possible for them to do, and Cason says we should start seeing the first devices appear later this year.
Matter Alliance
As of iOS 15 and its counterparts, Apple is now officially embracing the new Matter connected home alliance. This means you’ll soon be able to control accessories from other home automation ecosystems like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, all from HomeKit. In fact, Cason added that Matter-enabled accessories will be integrated straight into the Home app, so you’ll be able to see all of them and control them from there, regardless of whether they’re specifically made for HomeKit.
More HomeKit Changes
Speaking of the Home app, Cason also shared that the Apple Watch Home app is getting a nice update that will add intercom support and make it easier to get at the accessories that you need without having to dig through a long list.
While Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video platform can already detect people, animals, and vehicles, it’s also gaining package detection, so you’ll be able to get a notification when a new delivery appears on your front porch.
The Apple TV will also gain better HomeKit Secure Video features, including the ability to see multiple cameras at the same time, and control relevant accessories directly from the camera view, such as turning on a porch light or opening a garage door.