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pcd213

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 24, 2019
567
630
Does anyone know how to select which of the two stereo HomePods will deliver Siri responses? Siri always responds from the far HomePod in the room and I want it to respond from the HomePod that's closer to the entrance of the room. I've tried to change the direction of the HomePods in the app (changing which one is left and which is right) but that doesn't solve what I'm looking for.
 

danny842003

macrumors 68000
Jun 6, 2017
1,841
2,147
Does anyone know how to select which of the two stereo HomePods will deliver Siri responses? Siri always responds from the far HomePod in the room and I want it to respond from the HomePod that's closer to the entrance of the room. I've tried to change the direction of the HomePods in the app (changing which one is left and which is right) but that doesn't solve what I'm looking for.

Is the easy solution not to just physically move the positions around?
 
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Ledgem

macrumors 68020
Jan 18, 2008
2,034
924
Hawaii, USA
I had this issue recently - when I first paired my HomePods it worked fine, but I had to reset them recently and afterward Siri came from the other HomePod, which wasn't the one I wanted.

The fix seems to be simple: Siri will respond from the last HomePod you forcefully used it from. To force which HomePod Siri activates from, hold your finger gently on the screen of the HomePod you want to use, and Siri will come up (assuming you haven't changed this default behavior). I don't know if you need to issue it a command or if simply holding down at one time is good enough, but I issued it a command, and ever since then Siri has responded from that HomePod.

Truth be told, I haven't tried switching it back; I suppose that would be the definitive way to ensure that this is reproducible. But it's a bit more simple than moving the HomePods around. I am surprised Apple didn't include an option for this in software, as it isn't overly intuitive.
 
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pcd213

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 24, 2019
567
630
I had this issue recently - when I first paired my HomePods it worked fine, but I had to reset them recently and afterward Siri came from the other HomePod, which wasn't the one I wanted.

The fix seems to be simple: Siri will respond from the last HomePod you forcefully used it from. To force which HomePod Siri activates from, hold your finger gently on the screen of the HomePod you want to use, and Siri will come up (assuming you haven't changed this default behavior). I don't know if you need to issue it a command or if simply holding down at one time is good enough, but I issued it a command, and ever since then Siri has responded from that HomePod.

Truth be told, I haven't tried switching it back; I suppose that would be the definitive way to ensure that this is reproducible. But it's a bit more simple than moving the HomePods around. I am surprised Apple didn't include an option for this in software, as it isn't overly intuitive.
Thank you! I’m actually considering selling mine. I was in an emergency situation and needed to call my wife - I couldn’t breathe - and Siri didn’t recognize my voice and told me to change the settings in my phone to approve of other voices. I take some of the responsibility as maybe Siri couldn’t understand it was me when I was speaking short of breath, but she had one job to do and she screwed it up.
 

Ledgem

macrumors 68020
Jan 18, 2008
2,034
924
Hawaii, USA
Thank you! I’m actually considering selling mine. I was in an emergency situation and needed to call my wife - I couldn’t breathe - and Siri didn’t recognize my voice and told me to change the settings in my phone to approve of other voices. I take some of the responsibility as maybe Siri couldn’t understand it was me when I was speaking short of breath, but she had one job to do and she screwed it up.
Sorry to hear that; I'm glad you're OK.
 

pcd213

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 24, 2019
567
630
I had this issue recently - when I first paired my HomePods it worked fine, but I had to reset them recently and afterward Siri came from the other HomePod, which wasn't the one I wanted.

The fix seems to be simple: Siri will respond from the last HomePod you forcefully used it from. To force which HomePod Siri activates from, hold your finger gently on the screen of the HomePod you want to use, and Siri will come up (assuming you haven't changed this default behavior). I don't know if you need to issue it a command or if simply holding down at one time is good enough, but I issued it a command, and ever since then Siri has responded from that HomePod.

Truth be told, I haven't tried switching it back; I suppose that would be the definitive way to ensure that this is reproducible. But it's a bit more simple than moving the HomePods around. I am surprised Apple didn't include an option for this in software, as it isn't overly intuitive.
Thanks, again, so much. This solution fixed my issue!
 
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cmonkey1976

macrumors member
Sep 23, 2017
67
127
UK
I had this issue recently - when I first paired my HomePods it worked fine, but I had to reset them recently and afterward Siri came from the other HomePod, which wasn't the one I wanted.

The fix seems to be simple: Siri will respond from the last HomePod you forcefully used it from. To force which HomePod Siri activates from, hold your finger gently on the screen of the HomePod you want to use, and Siri will come up (assuming you haven't changed this default behavior). I don't know if you need to issue it a command or if simply holding down at one time is good enough, but I issued it a command, and ever since then Siri has responded from that HomePod.

Truth be told, I haven't tried switching it back; I suppose that would be the definitive way to ensure that this is reproducible. But it's a bit more simple than moving the HomePods around. I am surprised Apple didn't include an option for this in software, as it isn't overly intuitive.

thank you so much for this... was wondering why the same one responded time and time again Even though it wasn’t the closest. Now changed to the other one using this :)
 

Arran

macrumors 601
Mar 7, 2008
4,853
3,792
Atlanta, USA
The fix seems to be simple: Siri will respond from the last HomePod you forcefully used it from. To force which HomePod Siri activates from, hold your finger gently on the screen of the HomePod you want to use, and Siri will come up (assuming you haven't changed this default behavior). I don't know if you need to issue it a command or if simply holding down at one time is good enough, but I issued it a command, and ever since then Siri has responded from that HomePod.
I did not know that. Good info.

I used the method whereby when you’re building the stereo pair in the home app, the HomePod you select to start the process becomes the dominant Siri one.

Which was fine for a couple of months until they mysteriously swapped. This explains it.
 
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