The much-vaunted Apple HomePod – the company's first smart speaker and its first purely audio product in over a decade – arrived back in February 2018. Despite a break in play during which the smart speaker was essentially discontinued without a successor, the arrival of the five-star HomePod 2 in 2023 has reinvigorated Apple's attempt to muscle in on the smart speaker scene, sitting alongside the smaller and cheaper but still sonically stellar HomePod Mini which launched in 2020.

Coupled with some rather clever Siri commands, intuitive curation by Apple Music (a subscription is mandatory if you want the best HomePod experience) and AirPlay 2's stereo mode, Apple's smart speakers have impressed us with their music-playing skills. The HomePod 2, meanwhile, has made a huge splash thanks to its excellent integration of Dolby Atmos and seamless compatibility with the greater Apple ecosystem.

We've spent a few years getting to know our new musical butlers even further. So, if you have a new HomePod (or two) installed in your home, you're sure to find some handy tips to get the most out of your purchase. Get ready to explore the extent of HomePod's skills and all the useful things you can ask Siri to do.

How to set up HomePods

Rename your HomePod
Let's kick things off by personalising your HomePod experience. You can't rename Siri, but you can give your HomePod 2 or HomePod Mini its own unique name. Fire up the Home app, long-press on your HomePod icon, then scroll down – here you'll find a whole list of settings for your HomePod and Siri. The first one to change is your HomePod's name and location – this will come in handy if you decide to get multiple 'Pods.

Personalise Siri
Don't like the sound of Siri's voice? Firstly: how rude. Secondly: stay on the page to change how Apple's AI sounds. You can choose between male or female voices, and pick an American, Australian, British, Indian, Irish or South African accent for Siri.

Mute Siri
Don't want Siri listening in during a formal family dinner (or don't want anyone else controlling the music)? Simply say "Hey Siri, stop listening" and the HomePod will mute itself. To turn voice control back on, tap the top of the HomePod and say "Hey Siri, start listening".

Or, to do it manually: dip into the HomePod's page in the Home app, and toggle off/on the Listen for "Hey Siri" option.

Sign out of HomePod / reassign a new Apple ID to HomePod
Need to reset the HomePod or change the Apple ID associated with it? There are two ways to do this. The first is through the Home app: scroll down to the Details page and tap 'Remove Accessory'.

Alternatively, if the person whose Apple ID was used to set up HomePod isn't around, you can do it manually. Unplug the HomePod, wait ten seconds, then plug it back in. Tap the top of the HomePod with your finger and keep holding down until the white light turns red. You'll hear three bleeps, and Siri will tell you the HomePod is about to reset. Once Siri has spoken, you're good to let go. 

After that, the HomePod is ready to be set up with a new user.

How to use "Hey Siri" + Apple Music on HomePods

"Hey Siri, play a song"
Siri and HomePod are at their best when playing music from Apple Music, so the more you use them, the more they will learn the music you like. If you're already an Apple Music subscriber, simply ask it to play a song and it will play an artist or song you already know and like. The in-built music curation system for the HomePod is superb, far outstripping Alexa's effort when put up against the five-star Echo Dot (5th Gen). 

Worried that all your Apple products (iPhone, iPad, Watch) will activate every time you say "Hey Siri" when they're in the same room as the HomePod? Apple has clearly thought about this too, as HomePod's Siri takes precedence over all other Siris. This means the HomePod will always hear you when you ask it to skip songs or start a new playlist. This can be a bit of a mixed blessing, as we've found that our iPhone's Siri is more powerful and nuanced when dealing with everything apart from music, such as answering questions or even telling jokes.

Alternatively, you can mute Siri on the HomePod to use Siri on your iPhone or Watch in the same room, if you must.

Use Listening History (or don't)
Unlike your iPhone's Siri (which only responds to your voice), HomePod's Siri will let anyone talk to it and request music. So if you don’t want your partner's, friends' or children’s questionable music tastes messing up the For You recommendations in Apple Music, toggle the 'Use Listening History' option off in the Home app's Details section. This way, any music played through HomePod will be kept separate from your carefully curated Apple Music profile.

Add a song to a playlist
You can't create new playlists on HomePod, but you can ask it to add a song that's playing to one of your existing Apple Music playlists. You'll have to delete any songs in-app, too.

Playing the right song
You don't always have to say the exact song title and artist name to get the song you want. Siri is intelligent enough to know that if you ask for "that Run-DMC and Aerosmith song", it knows you want Walk This Way (1986). Similarly, if you ask it to play I Will Always Love You and it starts playing the Whitney Houston power ballad, tell it to play a different version and it'll switch to playing the original 1973 Dolly Parton rendition. Clever.

Play Podcast episodes
You don't have to stick to music – you can also ask HomePod to play podcasts through the native iOS Podcasts app. There is a caveat: while you can select a specific podcast, it will only play the most recent episode from it.

HomePod's playback history
In the Recently Played section in Apple Music (under the Listen Now tab), you can see a list of all the tracks and stations played through the HomePod. Caveats: it's mixed in with any song you play on Apple Music separately, and it won't list all the songs it played within a certain genre, artist or personalised station.

Here are some useful Siri commands for HomePod:

• "Hey Siri, play something I'll like" – will play songs from a personalised radio station based on your Apple Music listening preferences and songs/artists you've favourited.
• "Hey Siri, play something different" – didn't like the first selection? Siri will play a different artist or genre, but one that's still based on the music you like.
• "Hey Siri, play The Breeders' latest album" – useful when you can't remember the name of albums but know there's a new one out.
• "Hey Siri, tell me something about this artist" – will regale you with the first few lines of the artist's Wikipedia entry.
• "Hey Siri, I like this band/song" – Siri will take note and recommend more like it in future.
• "Hey Siri, what song is this?" – don't know what song it's playing? Just ask.
• "Hey Siri, what was that last song?/What was the name of the last song you played?" – didn't catch that last song? Just ask Siri what it was (you can't go back further than one song).
• "Hey Siri, what's the song that goes..." – you can search for a song by lyrics. You can do this in Apple Music by typing in the lyrics, but surely it's more fun to sing half-remembered lyrics at a smart speaker badly.
• "Hey Siri, play something I can meditate to" - Siri can play music based on activities (e.g. meditation, cooking, working out), your mood (chill, happy, romantic) or via genre (grunge, indie, new wave, etc.). 
• "Hey Siri, play something from Eurovision" - If you have no taste in music (sorry) and don't mind divulging such information to Apple, this is the command for you.