YouTube Music Integration Comes to HomePod

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YouTube Music is now available directly on Apple's HomePod and HomePod mini, thanks to new Siri integration support in the YouTube Music app.

youtube music logo
The change means subscribers to the streaming service can now choose to use voice commands to start YouTube Music on a ‌HomePod‌, without having to append "on YouTube Music" to every request. From Google's support document:

YouTube Music is supported on the following Apple HomePod models: Apple HomePod 1st Generation, Apple HomePod 2nd Generation, Apple HomePod Mini.

With YouTube Music on Apple HomePod, you can:
– Use Siri voice commands or physical touch controls on Apple HomePod to play music
– Handoff playback between your Apple HomePod and iPhone, and vice versa
– Control playback in the Apple Home app.

Support for the option was announced by YouTube Music in a Reddit post spotted by 9to5Google. The update has been expected since September, when hidden code was revealed in the app.

To set up ‌Siri‌ integration for YouTube Music, make sure you have updated the app, then follow these steps.

  1. Open the YouTube Music app.
  2. Tap your profile image in the top-right corner.
  3. Go to Settings ➝ Connected Apps.
  4. Select Connect with ‌HomePod‌.
  5. Tap Use in Home.

If you don't see the option in YouTube Music, try force-closing the app and re-opening it.

After you have done that, you will need to select YouTube as the "Default Service" for your ‌HomePod‌(s).

  1. Open the Home app on iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap the More button (three encircled dots) in the top-right corner.
  3. Tap Home Settings.
  4. Tap your username under the "People" section.
  5. Tap Default Service and choose YouTube Music.

youtube music homepod

Note that to connect YouTube Music to ‌HomePod‌, you will need to have either a YouTube Music or YouTube Premium account.

Apple has supported a handful of third-party music services on ‌‌HomePod‌‌ for the last couple of years, and the functionality is already available with Pandora, iHeartRadio, Deezer, and TuneIn Radio.

Other music services including Spotify have not supported this option even though Apple made the SiriKit Media feature available in iOS 14, so it remains limited in scope. With the direct play function, users can set a third-party service as a default music option, and when ‌‌Siri‌‌ on ‌‌HomePod‌‌ is asked to play content, ‌‌Siri‌‌ will play music from the selected service.

Related Roundups: HomePod, HomePod mini
Tag: YouTube Music
Buyer's Guide: HomePod (Neutral), HomePod Mini (Caution)
Related Forum: HomePod, HomeKit, CarPlay, Home & Auto Technology

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Top Rated Comments

Hank001 Avatar
Hank001
18 months ago
"Hey Siri, play me some music from Hollywood Wildlife on the living room HomePods"

- ok, timer set for 6 minutes.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JuicyGoomba Avatar
JuicyGoomba
18 months ago
You have to wonder at this point if Spotify will ever see any sense? It's kind of getting embarrassing.

Similar situation to Epic refusing to put Fortnite back on iOS. They're now laying off staff due to massive losses, but throwing Fortnite on the App Store even temporarily would likely be a very significant revenue uplift.

YTM support likely only caters to a handful of people on iOS that both use the service and own a homepod... But they're supporting it. Spotify have millions of users in this scenario and would rather be petty children.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarAnalogy Avatar
CarAnalogy
18 months ago
Yes! Finally! This alone is a huge improvement (assuming it works properly.) As a bonus, the process of turning it on showed me how to turn OFF Apple Music so maybe Siri will FINALLY quit trying to figure out what to play on Apple Music in response to “turn on the lights.”
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
steve09090 Avatar
steve09090
18 months ago

I've honestly found that most things don't work within the "ecosystem". Many people simply fall for the Apple marketing engine and end up believing in it.

Apple don't really do anything innovative at a software level anymore. They laid the foundation when Jobs was around, then after his passing they've simply refocused on bleeding dry what was left.

iOS, and now MacOS, are archaic. They need either a rewrite from the ground up to remove the bloat and actually optimise, especially where GUI performance is concerned. They could cut the bloat from what they have, but I don't actually recall Apple ever really deprecating little used "features". Google take a lot of flak for killing a lot of features, but they have the numbers that say only a couple of % of people actually use it. So they gut it from the code, keep everything streamlined, and ignore the vocal minority that complain. Harsh but ruthless and efficient.
Always fun (boring) to hear the anti-Cook side of things. The Apple ecosystem works very very well. Bloat? ???. What a load of bs.

I'm wondering how well you are airdropping images & files between the Android tablet, phone and laptop.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ackmondual Avatar
ackmondual
18 months ago

Note that to connect YouTube Music to HomePod, you will need to have either a YouTube Music or YouTube Premium account.
Huh... didn't know you can get just YouTube Music, but makes sense. More people get YouTube Premium, while wishing they could leave off YT Music and save the $$. Did know one person who actually got YouTube Premium only for YT Music! One nice feature he mentioned was you can upload your own music on there and access it anywhere!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cgs1xx Avatar
cgs1xx
18 months ago
My homepods won’t even play Apple Music, one day that stopped working and nothing I’ve tried resolves the problem. But I just use airplay now and it’s fine and I get to listen to versions of my albums from my library instead of the standard Apple Music versions. It’s interesting how you can be fully inside Apple’s eco system and some things don’t “just work”.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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