Apple published the first version of HomePod OS 14 on Tuesday evening. The Smart Speaker will not get its new operating system until later this year. The reason was probably the introduction of the HomePod mini, which had only happened last week. Communication via intercom The update includes the new intercom function. This allows internal communication between groups in the same house. It is also possible to address individual HomePod speakers in certain rooms or zones. Intercom is to come later on the iPhone and Apple Watch and thus be usable remotely.

Siri can now make suggestions for locations in maps, the HomePod can be used to initiate web searches on the iPhone and Siri will now stop alarms, timers, and media across multiple HomePod speakers. The podcast app can differentiate between several users in the household.

Alarms and HomePod mini setup Alarms and wake-up calls via HomePod can now also be favorite songs, playlists or a radio station from Apple Music. The setup of a HomePod mini can be supplied with all necessary data (Apple ID, Apple Music, Siri and WLAN) from a HomePod.

Some bug fixes are also in HomePod OS. So it happened that stereo pairs lost their connection with each other. Controlling multiple speakers through Siri was sometimes unreliable. Furthermore, Siri should work more efficiently overall. With HomePod OS 14, external music services such as Spotify will soon be accessible via Siri – however, users must explicitly name the service, a default setting does not seem to be possible