[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.

[hezorg]

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.