Apple Expanding Sound Recognition Feature to New HomePod and HomePod Mini With Software Update Later This Year
The second-generation HomePod introduced today will offer a Sound Recognition feature that allows the speaker to detect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm sounds and send a notification to the user's iPhone if either of those sounds are identified.
Apple says Sound Recognition will be available on both the new HomePod and the existing HomePod mini in a software update that will be released "later this spring," meaning the update should be available by June at the latest. It's unclear if the feature will also be rolled out to the first-generation HomePod released in 2018.
Apple warns that the feature should not be relied upon "in circumstances where users may be harmed or injured," or in "high-risk or emergency situations."
Sound Recognition on HomePods will require Apple's updated Home app architecture, which is temporarily unavailable after some users experienced issues after installing the update. It's not clear when the update will be made available again.
Sound Recognition was first introduced on the iPhone in 2020 and can detect a wide variety of sounds on that device, including a doorbell, running water, a baby crying, a car horn, a door knock, a cat meowing or dog barking, and more. Apple's announcement does not mention if HomePods will also be able to detect these other sounds, or if the feature will be limited to smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on the speakers.
Popular Stories
Code discovered in Apple's backend by Nicolás Alvarez and shared with MacRumors confirms Apple's plans to release four iPhone 16 models this year, and it indicates that the devices will all have the same A-series chip. There are mentions of new model numbers that are not associated with existing iPhones, and that have the numbering scheme Apple uses for its flagship devices. The code...
The upcoming iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be the first Apple smartphones to adopt Samsung's high performance "M14" OLED display panel, claims a new report coming out of South Korea. According to ETNews, Samsung's "M" series of OLED panels are made for flagship smartphones, while "14" refers to the number of high-performance materials used to produce them. "M14" is the first...
Apple today reclassified the iPhone X, first-generation HomePod, and first-generation AirPods as "vintage" products. The products appeared on Apple's vintage and obsolete products list earlier today. Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than five and less than seven years ago. Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers continue to offer...
Two years after Apple paid $50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over faulty MacBook butterfly keyboards, funds from the settlement will be going out to affected customers. An update on the MacBook Keyboard Litigation Settlement website says that the court issued a payment order on June 27, 2024, with payments set to be issued for approved claims by August 2024. Emails about the...
Apple eventually plans to turn some of its artificial intelligence features into paid services, similar to iCloud+ subscriptions, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman said that while Apple Intelligence will be free to start, Apple's long-term plan is to launch something like "Apple Intelligence+," with extra features that users pay...
Apple's upcoming iOS 18 software update is packed with features for supported iPhones, but it also promises to make your AirPods Pro experience better with a handful of sophisticated new capabilities that draw from machine learning improvements and AI enhancements. The following five AirPods Pro features are expected to arrive later this year, when iOS 18 is released to the general public in ...
