[iOS] Implement Native HomePod Support

[robotoman22]

Details

Just this week at WWDC (June 22, 2020), Apple announced support for third party music services on the HomePod.  I'm requesting that Spotify implement native support for the HomePod such that one or even multiple HomePods will appear in the "Connect to a device" menu on any Apple device WITHOUT having to connect through Airplay.  This will also allow users to ask Siri to play songs from Spotify on their HomePod(s). 

Apple is opening up the HomePod, and I know there are many other HomePod users that would love to have native Spotify support on their speaker. 

Resources

• WWDC 2020 video and further resources about this topic: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10061
• More details on this site: https://developer.apple.com/siri/
• Form to request music service integration from Apple: https://developer.apple.com/contact/request/sirikit-media-intent-for-homepod

Please upvote this idea to garner attention for it.  Thank you Spotify and the Spotify community.  Let's get this implemented so it's ready for general iOS 14 release this September!

[Peter]

Updated on 2020-06-27

Hey @robotoman22,

Thanks for bringing your feedback to the Idea Exchange!

We'll just need a bit more info to understand your idea in order to give it the right status.

We've found an active idea which, if implemented, would achieve what you are proposing:

• [iOS] Airplay 2 Support for iOS

Could you confirm that this is the case? If so, but you still think your idea should be considered as separate, could you let us know how your idea is distinct from the other one?

Thanks - keep us posted!

[robotoman22]

Hi Peter!

Thanks for your quick response and feedback.  

To address your concern, no, if this idea was implemented, my idea would not be achieved.  The two are related, but not the same.  Let me explain.

Airplay is an Apple standard that allows streaming audio/video to different platforms like speakers and TVs from Apple devices.  I believe that currently, the iOS app and macOS app of the Spotify client do not support the second version of Airplay which is what the above idea is referring to.

However, my idea is solely focused on supporting Spotify on the HomePod WITHOUT having to use Airplay to connect to the speaker (i.e. natively).  This means that one could simply ask Siri on the HomePod to play music from Spotify instead of having to go to my iPhone and manually select the HomePod speaker under "AirPlay or Bluetooth".  Additionally, this should allow the HomePods to show up under the "Select a device" menu without having to go through the AirPlay menu. 

Essentially, I think (although I am not sure) this means that the HomePod would be a new device added to this category of supported wireless speakers: https://spotify-everywhere.com/collections/wireless-speakers

I hope this clarifies your concerns.  Please let me know if you have any further questions and I would be happy to clarify further.

Thank you.

[Luan]

Updated on 2020-07-02

Hello and thanks for bringing your feedback to the Idea Exchange. We've marked this as a new idea.
Spotify Staff will look into this idea once it reaches the necessary amount of votes.

Related idea:

• [iOS][Connect] Apple HomePod Support

More information about how the Spotify Idea Exchange works can be found here.

[mrsky]

Why hasn't Spotify released the integration with the HomePod? iOS 14 was announced a while back and it still isn't available for it. Please do this already. To be clear, I am NOT talking about Airplay. I am talking about native support for the HomePod which is possible on iOS 14. Could we get some specific information on this please?

[vegea8]

Just to clarify, iOS 14 does not allow homepod to integrate with third-party music services, that will be HomepodOS 14 (a stripped down version of tvos just for the homepod, not iOS, apple changed it a while ago), which hasn’t been released yet (based on last years update scheme, I think it will be out in a month or so). There’s no beta program for the HomePod, but apple allows certain “people” to participate in a very small beta program for the HomePod, I suppose this includes Spotify developers, to be able to work on it’s integration so it’s ready to be launched at the same time as apple launches HomepodOS 14. But I don’t know for sure if Spotify has access to that beta (it should), and if it does, I don’t know if they’re actively working on it. 
When Apple let third-party music services use Siri on iOS last year, spotify launched integration pretty fast, so I expect to launch it for the HomePod shortly after Apple launches the Homepod update. 

[one_punch_man2]

@Peter: what vegea8 discribed is on point and can be taken as a 1:1 requirement for your further decisions.

I have to admit that I really miss Spotify on my HomePod, since Apple Music does not even come close to my Spotify experience. However, I think that there are many more like me that:

- like a good sounding smart speaker

- love Spotify

- don‘t want Alexa, Google Assistant or what else to listen to them 24/7. Siri indeed anonymizes your data when listening, which is a completely different privacy level. 

So there is a niche for Spotify. Plus there are rumors that Apple will present a smaller cheaper version of the HomePod as well. So Spotify could double on this community request.

[ianhhh123]

Hi.

Is there any update Spotify updating their iOS app so we can use Spotify as the native music player on the Apple HomePod? Can you give a rough timeframe for when this update will be coming? I waited for iOS 14 thinking the update would be available, it's very disappointing that it isn't.

Please move on this quickly, lots of people are waiting!!

Thanks.

[tkintali]

I believe we are currently waiting for the HomePod OS 14 update to ship out. That alongside MacOS Big Sur are still not out to the public yet and are still in beta. I imagine that this will likely get taken care of once those are released. My guess is that there’s a chance it’ll happen next week with the release of the speculated HomePod Mini.

[przyb]

Just finished watching the Apple Keynote for HomePod Mini and iPhones and they have not mentioned Spotify integration which is, well... dissapointin to say the least. They did however mention Pandora and Amazon Music... Didn't even now that the second one even existed...

[tkintali]

Yeah that was disappointing…. I still have hope that once the update comes out it’ll be available.