Questions about the HomePod? Get them answered here.

With iOS 13.2 on iPhone and HomePod there is now a simple way of adding this (even if native support would be appreciated).

I use the following shortcut with the Receiver Radio app but is should work with any radio app that has support for Apple Shortcuts or Siri. You need to have saved particular stations as favourites.

Open the Shortcuts app. Click the plus button to create a new shortcut. Next, click ‘add action’. Choose ‘Apps’ and scroll to Receiver. As you have a set of favourite stations saved, choose the one you want the Shortcut to play. Deselect ‘show when run’ in the action sheet you have just created. Now click the plus button to add the next step, which transfers your station to HomePod. Click back from Receiver and Apps until you see the options palette again. Go to ‘Media’ and search for ‘hand off playback’ (you can do this from the search field on the main screen too). Add the ‘Hand Off’ action to your shortcut. You’ll see an instruction which says ‘Hand off playback from SOURCE to DESTINATION’. Click source and choose iPhone. Click destination and choose HomePod.

Finally, click the blue ellipsis beside ‘New Shortcut’ to give your shortcut a name, which will be used when you ask Siri to play. So, something like ‘play BBC Radio Four’. Save the shortcut and you’re done.

Now, simply say ‘Hey Siri, play BBC Radio Four’ and the Shortcuts app will invisibly transfer playback from your phone to HomePod.

• Answered by Stephen K
• 01-Nov-2019
• Flag as inappropriate Answer (Can I play BBC Radio 4 through HomePod?)

Yes you can. No there are no issues with syncing sound with the timing of the video. The HomePod calibrates with the video content to address this, so you will not experience any latency between the audio and video streams.

• Answered by Mark C from Chicago
• 29-Nov-2019
• Flag as inappropriate Answer (Can I use HomePod as the speaker for my AppleTV for video content, if so are there any lip sync issues?)

Great question. First it depends on the size of the room and where you or your listeners are seated. For good measure homepod/homepods sound best about 5 feet away from ear distance at eye level. The HomePod itself has 7 tweeters and 1 woofer for rich full stereo sound. Connecting 2 homepods in the same room with give you a Multi stereo experience. If you really want to get creative? My suggestion is to place HomePod-1 in the left-rear corner 4-5 feet off the floor; and HomePod-2 in the right-front corner 4-5 feet off the floor. This with give you a simulated 360 degree immersion sound experience. Hope that helps, enjoy.

• Answered by Bryan J from Goodrich
• 18-Jan-2020
• Flag as inappropriate Answer (How far apart should a pair of home pods be, for optimum use ?)