Apple Releases HomePod Software 17.4 With Music Preference Update

[MacRumors]

Apple today released new software for the HomePod and the HomePod mini, debuting HomePod Software 17.4. The update comes over a month after the last HomePod software release.

With HomePod Software 17.4, Siri is able to learn what a user's preferred media service is, eliminating the need to set a third-party app as the default or include an app name when asking Siri to play content.

This update enables Siri to learn your preferred media service, so you no longer need to include the name of the media app in your request.

Apple has removed the Home app option that let users select a default media service as a result of the new feature addition. The change brings the HomePod in line with the iPhone and the iPad, which already offer the option to provide a default music service selection to Siri when making a song request for the first time.

Third-party apps that work directly with the ‌HomePod‌ include YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio. Streaming music services need to support ‌HomePod‌ for the feature to work, and not all do, such as Spotify. You can play Spotify content on the HomePod by asking Siri, but it routes the song through the iPhone to the HomePod over AirPlay.

Along with ‌Siri‌ support for a preferred music service, the ‌HomePod‌ 17.4 update also includes performance and stability improvements.

Article Link: Apple Releases HomePod Software 17.4 With Music Preference Update

 

[scrapesleon]

does Soundcloud works with this

 

[coachgq]

All this Spotify issue in the courts and they don’t even support music on the HomePod?

 

[abatabia]

These updates are so painfully slow.

 

[ThaRuler]

How do I update my HomePod?

 

[boswald]

Is it safe to update the OG HomePod(s)?

 

[Rafterman]

Why does it take so freakin' long to update Homepod?

 

[iAssimilated]

Is it safe to update the OG HomePod(s)?

I am interested in anyone's experience with this as well.

 

[Rafterman]

Is it safe to update the OG HomePod(s)?

Sure. I do every update, including now. Why wouldn't it be?

 

[iBluetooth]

All this Spotify issue in the courts and they don’t even support music on the HomePod?

Yes, absolutely. There must be a lot of people wanting support for HomePod

 

[Jupeman]

Sure. I do every update, including now. Why wouldn't it be?

Early updates to OG would often brick them. Those of us early adopters are still very gun-shy on updates as a result.

 

[Rafterman]

Early updates to OG would often brick them. Those of us early adopters are still very gun-shy on updates as a result.

I definitely didn't have any problems this time.

 

[CloneBB]

My OG updates went fine.

 

[Mike MA]

Early updates to OG would often brick them. Those of us early adopters are still very gun-shy on updates as a result.

Those bricked HomePods date back to a broken incremental update which happened in 2021 and also was acknowledged and pulled back by Apple that time. Since than I’m not aware of another early adopter issue but only single occasions happened at any stage of the OS release cycles, yet surely painfully enough. Also no issue with 17.4 for me on all three models.

 

[andrewmarich]

OGs updated without a hitch, working as expected.

 

[VisionRex]

Funny how as of today, Spotify has still not elected to add itself to the HomePod, showing they are intentionally being stubborn and malicious. Everyone else has, but them.

 

[Blowback]

Apple today released new software for the HomePod and the HomePod mini, debuting HomePod Software 17.4. The update comes over a month after the last HomePod software release.

With HomePod Software 17.4, Siri is able to learn what a user's preferred media service is, eliminating the need to set a third-party app as the default or include an app name when asking Siri to play content.Apple has removed the Home app option that let users select a default media service as a result of the new feature addition. The change brings the HomePod in line with the iPhone and the iPad, which already offer the option to provide a default music service selection to Siri when making a song request for the first time.

Third-party apps that work directly with the ‌HomePod‌ include YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio. Streaming music services need to support ‌HomePod‌ for the feature to work, and not all do, such as Spotify. You can play Spotify content on the HomePod by asking Siri, but it routes the song through the iPhone to the HomePod over AirPlay.

Along with ‌Siri‌ support for a preferred music service, the ‌HomePod‌ 17.4 update also includes performance and stability improvements.

Article Link: Apple Releases HomePod Software 17.4 With Music Preference Update

The whole 'Home' and everything dealing with updating Home Pods...and actually updating and finding out what version the Home Pod has after updating...is some of the worst and most Kluge software I think Apple has ever put out. !

 

[Blowback]

Sure. I do every update, including now. Why wouldn't it be?

There was a period a few years ago where updates were bricking/killing OG Home Pods....

 

[Blowback]

Early updates to OG would often brick them. Those of us early adopters are still very gun-shy on updates as a result.

Mine, once again lucky, still works after this update. Two OG Hpods from their initial release by Apple....

 

[Macaholic868]

I’m going to pass on these updates for a bit. My wife and I purchased a bunch of smart plugs from Meross to power dumb devices after going with Phillips Hue bulbs for the main lights in our house so we have several lamps and a couple of fans that use the HomeKit compatible version of these devices to control them and make them smart and it seems like every time there is a new beta version of iOS that is a point release ahead of the current version that those devices stop working in the Home App and I have to use the Meross app to control them. When they stop working for me they stop working for my wife as well so she has the app to fall back on too. Then at some point near the end of the development cycle the devices all start working again in the Home app but the process seems to then repeat when I update to latest pubic release of the HomePod firmware and it’s another month or more before things settle down and start working again

Why this would happen is beyond me. You’d think there’d only be issues if we were installing HomePod or tvOS updates as each of those can act as the Home Hub but this has become a well established pattern for the last year plus now for whatever reason.

Just in the last two weeks things started working for both my wife and I with her on 17.3 and with me on the 17.4 beta releases. Both of us can use the Home app and Siri again to control those plugs and I know as soon as she updated her iPhone to v17.4 if she hasn’t already and/or I update the HomePods to v17.4 and/or tvOS then it’ll start happening again and it’ll be another month before things get back to normal. I’m tired of it. Unless there’s some major security issue I’m keeping my device on v17.3 for a while and hope that if there are issues Meross puts out firmware updates for their smart plugs to fix them which is another pattern I’ve noticed. Usually at some point after a release of the latest version of the HomePod OS / tvOS there seems to be a firmware update for those smart plugs that comes along and then boom, right away or within a few days things work normally again.

It’s to the point where I’m considering ditching the smart plugs and going to Phillips Hue bulbs for all lights and a new brand of smart plugs for those few devices left that aren’t lights like the fans. I’ll worry about more smart plugs for our Christmas lights next year if I find a brand that is more stable than these Meross plugs. It’s just so strange because none of the reviews and very few forum posts on their website describe the issues I’ve been having with them since we first started buying them and if they weren’t so inexpensive I would’ve replaced them a while ago but I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[OutGolfn]

Would be nice if SiriusXM would be recognized on the HomePod, like Apple Music and YouTube Music. My understanding is the SiriusXM recent app overhaul in December allows Siri but it uses the iPhone to accomplish it similar to Spotify using the iPhone for its HomePod feature.

Pandora is supported on the HomePod and owned by SiriusXM, yet their flagship SiriusXM (high margin product) is not native on HomePod and/or Apple Watch app support is also no where. SMH

 

[Promostyle]

“enables Siri to learn” 🙄

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Sure. I do every update, including now. Why wouldn't it be?

Because in the past lots of folks had the original Homepods bricked by updating. I have never updated mine AFAIK.

 

[benoit79]

Sure. I do every update, including now. Why wouldn't it be?

Because every update since OS 16.0 had issues. The last two updates were better, but I still have various issues every single day.

 

[zapmymac]

...I think I'll wait till the weekend. Thank you for those that did update immediately. OG HomePod x2


Side note: for the first time ever one of my HomePods just stopped playing mid song. It was a very bass heavy song and I did have the volume turned up... I'm worried 🥴.

I unplugged it, waited and plugged it back in and was fine...

Glitch or sickness coming on???