Apple in the iOS 14.5 beta added a new option to help Siri learn to select your preferred audio apps for listening to music, podcasts, and audiobooks, a feature that will undoubtedly be appealing to non-Apple Music fans.

siri choose music service
When you ask ‌Siri‌ to play a song, album, podcast, or book, ‌Siri‌ will prompt you for your preferred app. This is not a default setting, but ‌Siri‌ will use this information to learn your app preferences and will select the apps you want to use when you make requests.

There is no specific toggle for you to turn on to select a music service, and ‌Siri‌ may ask again, but this is a way to get ‌Siri‌ to choose the apps you use instead of automatically opening default apps like Apple Music.

How to Choose a Preferred Music Service Using Siri

  1. Update to iOS 14.5 or iPadOS 14.5 on the iPad.
  2. Ask ‌Siri‌ to play an artist, song, or album with a request like "Hey ‌Siri‌, play Fleetwood Mac."
  3. ‌Siri‌ will pop up a list of all music apps you have installed, and will ask "Which app would you like to use?"
  4. Choose your preferred music app from the list. siri music app default
  5. If asked, confirm that ‌Siri‌ can access data from your music app.
  6. From there, ‌Siri‌ will play the music in your app of choice. If you chose Spotify, for example, the music content will play in Spotify.

‌Siri‌ will tell you which music app was selected when the song plays, and you can also see an icon from the music app in the Now Playing window.

spotify music player
It's been possible to play music from other services by clarifying which service you want ‌Siri‌ to use, such as "Hey ‌Siri‌, play music on Spotify," but the change implemented in iOS 14.5 makes the ‌Siri‌ remember your music app of choice so a simple command like "Hey ‌Siri‌ play music" will use your favorite app rather than defaulting to ‌Apple Music‌. This also works for podcasts, audiobooks, and other audio content.

How to Change Your Default Music Service

At the current time, there's no ‌Siri‌ command or music setting to manually change the default music app that you've set through the ‌Siri‌ There is no option for manually changing your preferred music service as this is meant to be a ‌Siri‌ intelligence feature where ‌Siri‌ learns preferences over time.

You can ask ‌Siri‌ to play music on a different music service and sometimes that will shift the default. So if you've set Spotify as your default but want to change back to ‌Apple Music‌, you can say "Hey ‌Siri‌, play Fleetwood Mac on ‌Apple Music‌," or vice versa, "Hey ‌Siri‌, play Fleetwood Mac on Spotify."

‌Siri‌ will also occasionally bring up the popup asking you which app you want to use when you make a request so that it can keep current with your preferences.

Related Forum: iOS 14

Top Rated Comments

eicca Avatar
64 months ago
I just want the shuffle algorithm to not pick the same ten songs over and over again.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
silentdevotion Avatar
64 months ago

I just want the shuffle algorithm to not pick the same ten songs over and over again.
4k songs on my phone and it feels like I have 200 max.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KanosWRX Avatar
64 months ago
THANK GOD! Been waiting for this. Now just let me switch my default assistant to Google and ill be a happy iPhone user ;)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iGüey Avatar
64 months ago
What Apple should do is to return to origins. I mean, I felt in love with Apple thanks to the iPod, the originals, the classic ones. It was so simple to play all our music there that actually is the device that vamped the way of Apple to relaunch the company and lead to it’s current success (obviously they took a step by step way). Now is really sad that Apple Music is almost forgotten by Apple. So I truly think they should reengineer the Music App from zero, respecting all aspects that made iPod great and one of the most iconic devices for our generation, at least as a way to honour all customers that have been with Apple since then, supporting Apple to become what today is.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dynamojoe Avatar
64 months ago
Now I just need an app that I can use to play my music without nagging me to try a free subscription.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrGuder Avatar
64 months ago
You know that Apples music app is getting bad when they now allow you to change the default to another player. ?
I’m using Marvis Pro and love it’s design!!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Apple Creator Studio

Apple Introduces New 'Creator Studio' Bundle of Apps for $129 Per Year

Tuesday January 13, 2026 6:11 am PST by
Apple today introduced a new Apple Creator Studio bundle that offers access to six creative apps, as well as exclusive AI features and content, as part of a single subscription. In the U.S., pricing is set at $12.99 per month or $129 per year. Here are the six apps included with an Apple Creator Studio subscription:Final Cut Pro on the Mac and iPad Logic Pro on the Mac and iPad Pixelmator...
Verizon New

Verizon is Down: iPhones Show 'SOS' Mode Due to Network Outage [Resolved]

Wednesday January 14, 2026 10:18 am PST by
Verizon is experiencing a major outage across the U.S. today, with hundreds of thousands of customers reporting issues with the network on the website Downdetector. There are also complaints across Reddit and other social media platforms. iPhone users and others with Verizon service are generally unable to make phone calls, send text messages, or use data over 5G or LTE due to the outage....
iPhone Top Left Hole Punch Face ID Feature Purple

New Leak Reveals iPhone 18 Pro Display Sizes, Under-Screen Face ID, and More

Wednesday January 14, 2026 7:09 am PST by
While the iPhone 18 Pro models are still around eight months away, a leaker has shared some alleged details about the devices. In a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo this week, the account Digital Chat Station said the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will have the same 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch display sizes as the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Consistent with previous...
iOS 26

Here's What's New in iOS 26.3 So Far

Monday January 12, 2026 1:15 pm PST by
Apple today seeded the second beta of iOS 26.3, nearly a month after the first beta. So far, the update includes a couple of new features for iPhones. iOS 15.3 through iOS 18.3 were all released in late January over the years, so it is thereby likely that iOS 26.3 will be released towards the end of this month as well. The update is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer. Below,...
airpods pro 3 design

Apple Releases New AirPods Pro 3 Firmware Update

Tuesday January 13, 2026 11:29 am PST by
Apple today released a firmware update for the AirPods Pro 3. The latest firmware has a version number of 8B34, up from the previous version 8B30. Apple has a support document for AirPods firmware updates, and it indicates that the 8B34 update contains unspecified "bug fixes and other improvements." No other AirPods models received firmware updates today. How to install AirPods Pro...