HomePod Which UK Radio stations can you play on your HomePod?

[danmart]

Like the feedback link for Apple: https://www.apple.com/feedback/homepod.html. Anyone know an equivalent for the BBC?

This page seems to be the one:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/other/voice-device

They list a feedback email address of bbcvoice.feedback@bbc.co.uk

I’m emailing right now!

 

[stridemat]

I’m still at a loss why this hasn’t been sorted.

 

[Sype10]

I can get Absolute Radio to play sometimes.
“Hey Siri play Absolute radio” worked originally but now I have to say “hey Siri play the radio station Absolute Radio”
I have the Absolute Radio app installed on my devices so I’m not sure if the app is required for this to work.

 

[tvOStoday]

I use receiver which has siri shortcut support and works great. Means you can also add your own custom streams

 

[danmart]

I use receiver which has siri shortcut support and works great. Means you can also add your own custom streams

When you use that, is it running on an iOS device and just sending the output to a HomePod? Or once you set it up with a Siri voice command can it be run on the HomePod ‘natively’?

I ask because we have multiple iOS devices and multiple HomePods so coordinations might become tricky?

 

[tvOStoday]

Hi danmart, once siri shortcuts are set up on the app you can call the command on the HomePod and it will connect to the app and airplay over. This may not be what you are looking for if theres multiple iOS devices under multiple iCloud accounts.

 

[danmart]

Thanks for the reply @tvOStoday. Do you think that I would need to set up different triggers for myself and my wife to avoid tying playback to just one of our iPhones / iPads?

 

[redrog]

“Play Absolute radio” works for me and it appears that it is playing straight off the HomePod, not airplay.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Looks like the next iOS HomePod update might be bringing BBC radio! Maybe those emails worked!

 

[jonnyb]

If anything deserves a “Finally”, it’s this!

 

[stridemat]

If anything deserves a “Finally”, it’s this!

Finally . Can’t wait.

 

[idrewuk]

Can finally ditch sonos. HomePod is my favourite Apple product and this has been a long time coming.

 

[Orinoco3]

Apple says that, in the Fall, HomePod will get 100,000 radio stations from iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio.com. Hooray!

As TuneIn radio has all the BBC radio stations, I assume that will include the BBC stations too (the one's I have been looking forward to having most.)

 

[Edward452]

With this update I'm thinking about buying a homepod - do we know if we will simply be able to say "hey siri play radio 4" it will indeed do that, absolutely no other operations necessary? If so I might buy one now

 

[Orinoco3]

@Edward452, yes that is how it currently works for the few radio stations that are currently available on Homepod.

For example, to play Classic FM, one presently can say "Hey Siri Play Classic FM Radio" and it plays. Simple. It does require to say the right phrase. "Classic FM Radio" works but not "Classic FM" without "Radio".

 

[Edward452]

Thanks for your reply Orinoco - I guess I’ll have to wait for the update to be sure easy one step access to BBC stations is definitely available. The HP would be in the kitchen and this is an absolute requirement - it will replace a conventional radio and realistically my wife would not be impressed with having to do other than simply, in effect, turn it on! I’m the Apple fan - she just wants to listen to radio 4

 

[johnyslats]

BBC Radio stations are now available within the music app (via search) as of iOS 13 beta 2. Unfortunately I don't have access to a HomePod or the know magic Siri command

Edit: The following format seems to work on my iPhone “Hey Siri, Listen to radio station BBC radio 1”

 

[jonnyb]

I'll try this on my HomePods when I get home, though I wonder whether they'd need the updated software described in the keynote. They may not, though.

On my Google Home minis, I can simply say "Hey Google, play radio 4" which is much less of a mouthful. I hope the HomePod command can be similarly succinct.

 

[johnyslats]

I'll try this on my HomePods when I get home, though I wonder whether they'd need the updated software described in the keynote. They may not, though.

On my Google Home minis, I can simply say "Hey Google, play radio 4" which is much less of a mouthful. I hope the HomePod command can be similarly succinct.

Just successfully created a couple of Siri shortcuts and condensed to "Hey Siri, Radio One", "Hey Siri, Radio Two" etc, But it's a bit buggy and sometimes doesn't start. But definite progress!

 

[dburdge]

It appears that it’s limited to Global radio stations. All are also playable on iOS devices through the music App. Interestingly I can’t find the right voice command to get Classic FM to work on HomePod but the others work fine

I can now get HomePod to play Classic FM with the command "Play Classic FM"

 

[jonnyb]

Great news!
https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/01/apple-homepod-radio-stations/

 

[danmart]

Yes, people running the beta are reporting this, which is great.

At the very least I’ll be able to ditch the DAB radio in our bedroom, possibly the Bose unit in the kitchen, too.

 

[Nell]

Ooh, that’s exciting! Although what I really want is to be able to ask it to start playing Radio 4 at 6am. My bedside clock/radio is on its last legs (it’s FM and the signal isn’t that great).

 

[Edward452]

Do we know if it will be possible for the HomePod to just start playing your requested radio station without Siri saying anything? I can imagine it could get to be irritating if you have to listen to her saying “Now playing Radio 4” or whatever every time you want to listen to the radio!

 

[danmart]

Do we know if it will be possible for the HomePod to just start playing your requested radio station without Siri saying anything? I can imagine it could get to be irritating if you have to listen to her saying “Now playing Radio 4” or whatever every time you want to listen to the radio!

Once Siri is set to play a specific channel I would anticipate you can just say ‘play’ or ‘stop’ and the device will do that with no verbal response.

It only responds to more complex commands, so you can be sure it has understood.