Hello everyone. I've recently made the switch from Spotify to Apple Music, I promise this is relevant, and I'm wondering if it's time to switch from Alexa, which I never use for anything other than music and the weather, to a HomePod. One of the things keeping me away from the HomePod for a while was that you had to jump through insane hoops to play on Spotify. But, since I'm no longer using that, that barrier has gone down. I've not really been able to find anything that's not a video about the benefits of a HomePod to an Apple user, so, I'm curious what you all think? Thanks in advance.
Comments
It still depends.
HomePods sound amazing, and they work really well with the iPhone, but Siri does have some pain points. If you just want to play music then you're good to go.
I do like that I can start playing music on my phone and then put it near the HomePod to move audio to the device, or take calls on the HomePod.
I do like some of the features offered by Alexa, but I prefer the integrations I get with the HomePod. I typically play a book at night on Audible, and I can tell Alexa to just play the book. What I do now is just start the book on my phone and then put the phone near the HomePod to transfer to that device.
Possibly yes
Hey. For reasons I won’t go into here, I’ve also been thinking about switching from Alexa to HomePod.
I have a couple of HomePod Minis here that I bought a few years ago, but have up to now primarily been using the Alexa Echo Studio as my main speaker in the living room and standard Alexa Echo in the bedroom. If I make the switch, the minis would go into the bedroom and a new big HomePod would be purchased for the living room.
The one little issue can be that when you say “Hey Siri”, the intended device is not always the one that responds. So would be interested to hear from HomePod owners if they find that to be an issue. Otherwise, if using the speaker for what you and I do, it seems a good option. There are a lot of rumours about new HomePods coming soon though, so might be worth holding off a little while.
Dave
Might Start With Mini
I'm thinking that, what I'll do, is get a Mini now to make sure I like the experience. Then, when/if a newer, bigger one comes out, I'll buy that one because that's the one I actually want.
Might Not Be The Best Person To Comment Here....
I had a HomePod Mini from 2024 to about January 2026 but I sold mine and went full Amazon with the Echo Dot Max because it sounded amazing and Alexa+ blew my mind. However, I did like some of the features of the HomePod, like being able to transfer music from my phone to the speaker. Siri was the main reason I made the switch to Amazon completely. A lot of times, I'd ask something and it would tell me to ask again from my phone. Asking for music and the weather was a good experience, but my brain doesn't do simple like that, apparently. Also, I use Siri a lot on my phone, and a lot of times when I would use either of the wake words to trigger Siri on my phone, the HomePod would trigger instead, so I had to go into Settings, change the wake word settings, and then try and remember which one triggers which device.
My point is: if you want to switch to the HomePod Mini, go aahead. The sound quality is decent and the Apple Music integration is obviously seamless. However, I do want to put it out there that Alexa does have an Apple Music integration, and the sound quality of the Echo Dot Max beats out the HomePod Mini for the same price, in my opinion.
On a side note, if you ever decide to switch from algorithm-driven streaming to satellite radio like I've done, the SiriusXM integration is so clutch. You probably won't get that natively on HomePod. ;)