Apple's announcements at WWDC 2024 included the unveiling of iOS 18 and 5 updates for AirPods (you can follow all the news as it happens in our WWDC 2024 live blog), but one product that didn't have reveal time It was the HomePod.
However, updates are coming for the HomePod 2 and HomePod mini, although they are relatively small and were announced by Apple in a separate release from the WWDC keynote.
First up is the ability to select a shared playlist queue with HomePods on multiple iPhones using Apple's SharePlay feature. If someone has Apple Music and has started playing music on a HomePod during a party, other people can hold their iPhone closer to the original iPhone (or scan a QR code) to gain access to the HomePod's music queue and can then control play and add more songs, and the good thing is that they can do it even if they don't have an Apple Music subscription.
It's not a game-changer, but I think it's a really nice social improvement – as long as your friends are also Apple users, of course.
The other change, which is not specific to HomePods, but they will benefit from it, is that spatial audio information is now supported by AirPlay, including Dolby Atmos. So if you're playing something on your phone with spatial audio support, like a Dolby Atmos movie from Netflix, and you send the audio to a HomePod for louder playback, it will play with the added separation of Dolby Atmos.
However, this works with most of the best AirPlay speakers that support spatial audio and Dolby Atmos; For example, I'm looking forward to seeing how well it works with my Sonos Era 300, as AirPlay is usually much faster than using Sonos. app (event the controversial new Sonos app designed to make listening to music easier).
Dolby Atmos already supported Bluetooth, as evidenced by spatial audio not only on the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Max, but I've also been using it from my iPhone on the Sonos Ace headphones. So it's great to see AirPlay catch up with Bluetooth support there… now if only Apple would support Hi-Res Audio over Bluetooth or AirPlay…
