Using iPhone to control HomePod playback without AirPlay

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Level 1

115 points

Using iPhone to control HomePod playback without AirPlay

I don't like using Siri to tell my HomePod what to play. I'd rather choose the music on my iPhone and then have it play on the HomePod. But when I do that, the music is actually playing on my iPhone and streaming to the HomePod via AirPlay.

Can I cut my iPhone out of the loop during the playing, and essentially just have it send the playlist to the HomePod, which will then play the music directly from Apple Music or Apple Match?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 20, 2025 1:00 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

275,526 points

Jan 20, 2025 2:29 PM in response to Andrew Shalit

First we should be clear on whether you have a subscription to Apple Music or iTunes Match (there is no Apple Match). HomePod works best with Apple Music. It can be a bit sketchy if you only have iTunes Match (and paying for both is redundant). When you use AirPlay to play Apple Music content to HomePod it will normally take over the stream and play the content directly rather than having data streamed to the iPhone to be rebroadcast to the HomePod. If in doubt, however, you can use the Control Remote Speakers option to choose what the HomePod plays directly. See Remote control for HomePod, not using AirPlay - Apple Community for details of how this works.

tt2

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