SharePlay Music Control Expanding to HomePod and Apple TV

Starting with iOS 17.4 and tvOS 17.4, currently in beta, Apple has expanded SharePlay music control to HomePod speakers and the Apple TV. The feature was tipped to us by Hidde Collee, Aaron Perris, and Benjamin Xing.

SharePlay Music Control Expanding Feature 2
This feature allows family and friends to control the music that is playing on your HomePod or Apple TV with permission. For now, this is limited to the Music app, but the other people do not need to have an Apple Music subscription in order to participate.

Apple already rolled out a similar feature for CarPlay last year, allowing anyone in a car to control music playback via SharePlay with permission.

The primary user can decide whether to approve or deny each request.

HomePod

While playing a song in the Music app on your iPhone, tap the SharePlay icon at the bottom of the screen to bring up a QR code, which another person can scan with their iPhone or Android smartphone's camera to request access to music playback controls. Even a screenshot of the QR code suffices, allowing you to remotely grant access to people around the world if so desired.

The feature works on both the HomePod and HomePod mini, and we could imagine the QR code eventually being shown on the long-rumored HomePod with a screen.

Apple TV

With the tvOS 17.4 update, the Music app on the Apple TV can also show a QR code on the TV that guests can scan to request access to music controls.

The expansion of this feature to the Apple TV and the HomePod is useful for house parties, allowing everyone to be the DJ.

The first beta versions of iOS 17.4, tvOS 17.4, and HomePod software version 17.4 were made available to developers on Thursday for testing. Apple said iOS 17.4 will be released in March, so we can expect the other updates to launch then too.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, HomePod

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Top Rated Comments

miguelcoma Avatar
15 months ago
Wait this is actually great! When I've had friends over at home, they often ask if they can add music to the playlist but they are all Spotify users and I use Apple Music so this will finally solve that for me.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chabig Avatar
15 months ago
I can update my HomePods remotely when I’m away from home, using the Home app. I wish Apple would add the same capability to the AppleTV.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
midkay Avatar
15 months ago
I love this feature in CarPlay, great to see it coming to Apple TV as well. It's awesome how only the primary user needs to be an Apple Music subscriber and everyone else can just tag onto their account.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alayal Avatar
15 months ago
Hopefully coming to the my 2 original HomePods.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
neworleans-7 Avatar
15 months ago
I wish this same functionality could be done when you're playing music through a bluetooth speaker.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Macaholic868 Avatar
15 months ago

IF they have iPhones, right? Does any of this work with Android phones, out of curiousity?
The answer is that collaborative playlists do work on Android devices if you or your friends download the Apple Music app.
[HEADING=2]How to collaborate on a playlist in Apple Music on your iPhone, iPad, or Android[/HEADING]
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213881
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)