Apple HomePod: Everything to Know Before Buying in India

Apple hasn’t made any major changes to the HomePod sold in India compared to what was initially launched in the US. However, if you’re extremely observant, you will notice that the India version doesn’t have a braided power cable. When we checked with Apple, the company could not confirm a reason for this.

Setup only takes a couple of minutes. All you need is to plug your HomePod into a power socket and then bring a compatible iPhone or iPad close to it. The HomePod will recognise it and copy your Apple ID details and preferences over automatically. You’ll get on-screen prompts that you need to tap one-by-one to complete the setup process. It’s even easier than setting up a smart TV, and is similar to how you get started with any recent new Apple product. The setup process for the HomePod is far better than what you’ll get with an Amazon Echo or Google Nest device.

Apple HomePod provides an easy setup to iPhone users

No, you don’t need to do anything after setting up your HomePod. It uses its microphones to automatically sense the dimensions of your room and its relative position, and will use this to deliver you an optimal sound. Apple calls this “Spatial Awareness.” We were able to enjoy a room-filling sound experience in a 15×10-foot room, with soothing lows and mids as well as crisp highs. However, you don’t get an adjustable equaliser to tweak the sound profile as per your preferences. You can manually adjust EQ settings in the Apple Music app or whatever other music app or source device that you use with the HomePod, though.

Apple has provided powerful enough microphones that don’t require you to come very close to the HomePod to speak with Siri or control your music. While Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant on our Amazon Echo and Google Nest devices would sometimes fail to understand what we were saying when standing in different parts of our room, due to ambient noise and music that was playing from a TV in the same room, we found that the HomePod was able to catch most of our commands without any noticeable delay.

Yes, Siri has been trained to understand what people say in simple English, even with an Indian accent. We asked multiple people of different age groups to try using Siri, and the results were acceptable for all of them.

You need an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to set up your HomePod. The list of compatible models includes the iPhone 5s and later, all iPad Pros, iPad (5th generation), iPad Air and later, iPad mini 2 and later, and iPod touch (6th generation). The device that you’re connecting with your HomePod also needs to run at least iOS 13.3.1. Once connected and configured, you can play audio tracks from your smart TV or MacBook via AirPlay. There’s no official support for Android users, though. You cannot use Bluetooth to pair laptops, smartphones, or other source devices, and there are no physical inputs.

The HomePod requires an Apple Music subscription for you to be able to use its full music functionality. This means that you can’t ask Siri to stream your favourite music tracks if you don’t have Apple Music. At least that’s now available at Rs. 99 a month, and Apple says its collection includes over 60 million songs and tens of thousands of playlists. You can also use AirPlay to stream music stored in your local Apple Music library, or from apps such as Amazon Prime Music, Spotify, or YouTube Music on a compatible device. You can also ask Siri on your HomePod to play music stored in your local library.

Apple HomePod requires an Apple Music subscription to deliver you a full-fledged experience

Yes, you can play songs from any third-party app, but only via AirPlay. You can’t ask Siri to play your favourite music from a third-party app. This means that if you want to use voice commands to play a particular track, you will have to use Apple Music. This is unlike how you can play music directly from third-party apps including Amazon Prime Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Spotify, and YouTube Music on an Amazon Echo or Google Nest speaker. Even Siri on the iPhone lets you play music from third-party apps.

No, Siri doesn’t understand any Indic language including Hindi yet. With the iOS 13.3.1 update in late January, Apple introduced support for Indian English Siri voices on the HomePod. There is no word on when or whether Hindi support will be added. You should pick an Amazon Echo or a Google Nest if you would prefer to use Hindi commands. However, the HomePod does currently support Cantonese, French, German, Mandarin, and Spanish.

The HomePod, through its Siri integration and Apple Music support, is capable of correctly recognising the names of many popular Indian albums, songs, and singers. We succeeded in asking Siri on the HomePod to play several Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, and Punjabi songs. It was also able to understand singer names such as Bir Singh, Dijit Dosanjh, Nimrat Khaira, Shreya Ghoshal, SP Balasubrahmanyam, Tarsem Jassar, and PB Sreenivas. Similarly, we were successful when asking it to play tracks including Awara Hoon, Baapu Tere Karke, Ivan Yaara Magano, and Phire Elam Dure Giye.

Yes, you can ask your HomePod to go forwards or backwards, and pause or play a song using your voice commands. You can also adjust the volume by telling Siri on the HomePod what you want.

The touch panel on the HomePod lets you control your music manually. There are volume buttons that appear when you’re playing a song or speaking with someone on a phone call. You can tap the panel to pause or play a track, double-tap to go to the next track, and triple-tap to go to the previous track.

Apple HomePod provides manual volume controls while playing an audio

Yes, you can ask Siri on your HomePod about the current weather, nearby places, or any general knowledge questions that you might have. It uses the Internet to provide answers to most of your questions instantly.

Yes, you can ask Siri on the HomePod to set an alarm or timer. You can also set a reminder for a specific task after enabling the Personal Requests option using the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.

Siri does support contextual replies, which means you can ask follow-up questions to some extent based on the answers to a previous question. The feature is currently quite limited in scope, though.

You can certainly ask Siri on your HomePod to send a message or read what you’ve received. To send a new message, all you need to do is say, “Hey Siri, send a message to [contact name].” You can then speak your message. After that, Siri will ask you if you’re ready to send it to your contact. The HomePod also lets you hear your messages read out to you. However, it doesn’t provide any alerts when you receive a new message. In addition to text messages, Siri on the HomePod also works with third-party apps including Skype for iPhone and WhatsApp.

Yes, you can ask Siri on your HomePod to make a phone call for you. You can also answer your calls directly on the HomePod, and you can check for missed calls on your phone. Further, you can ask Siri to play your most recent voicemail. It is, however, important to highlight that the HomePod doesn’t make any sound when a phone call comes in, just like you don’t get notified of any new messages unless you already have your phone on you. Also, you won’t be able to use an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) that requires keypad input from your side.

No, just like with messages and phone calls, the HomePod doesn’t support iPhone system audio. This means that if you get an email or message on an app such as Slack or WhatsApp on your iPhone, you won’t get its notification alert from your HomePod.

No, Apple hasn’t provided any ports — not even a 3.5mm audio input — to let you plug anything into the HomePod using a cable.

Apple has provided Bluetooth connectivity on the HomePod, but that’s limited to its proprietary features. This means that you cannot use the HomePod as a Bluetooth speaker.

Apple has integrated HomeKit support into the HomePod to let you control supported smart lights, switches, fans, and sensors using voice commands. You can also set up routines via the Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad to let the HomePod execute sequences of actions automatically. That said, the list of HomeKit-supported devices is limited when relative to smart devices that support Alexa and Google Assistant.

The cable available with the HomePod is not officially removable, but there are some stories on the Web that describe ways to remove it. We don’t recommend you to do so as this will void your official warranty. You will need to visit an Apple service centre if you have any trouble with the cable.

Apple has offered a HomePod multiuser option in certain markets that lets users set up the speaker as a family device, and allows Siri to personalise experiences for up to six users. However, this feature isn’t yet available in India when using the “English (India)” language setting.

Apple HomePod has a multiuser option, but it’s yet to be available for Indian users

Yes, you can disable Siri on the HomePod by saying “Hey Siri, stop listening!”, or through the Home app. There is no dedicated switch on the HomePod to do this. Once you’ve deactivated Siri, you can only restore it using the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.

Apple hasn’t implemented any way to let you look at your history of interactions with Siri. You can ask the assistant to repeat what was said to it last, but this is limited to a few minutes.

Yes, you can delete your Siri interactions via the HomePod by going to Siri History> Delete Siri History from the HomePod settings on your Home app.

Yes, Apple has implemented stereo pairing on the HomePod via AirPlay 2. This enables a 3D surround-sound experience.