How to set up multi-room music on Apple HomePod and HomePod mini

How to prepare multi-room music on Apple HomePod and HomePod mini

(Image credit: Future)

The Apple HomePod and HomePod mini may non exist the smartest of smart speakers, but they do audio neat, and if you own more than i they're like shooting fish in a barrel to adjust in a Sonos-style multi-room setup.

This will allow you blast music throughout your home, either playing a single rail through multiple HomePods simultaneously or dedicating each speaker to a different tune. The all-time part? It's all controllable from a single iPhone, or via Siri vocalism commands if you'd prefer to stay hands-free.

Here's what you'll need for multi-room sound on HomePod and HomePod mini, and how to ready it up.

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HomePod and HomePod mini multi-room: What you need

Naturally you'll need at least two HomePod devices. The standard HomePod works fine, but at a much cheaper $100 per unit of measurement, the HomePod mini is far more than toll-effective for multi-room setups. Its smaller size also makes it easier to find room for in, say, a decorated kitchen, or on a total bookshelf.

You'll also demand an iPadOS tablet or an iOS device, specifically one running iOS 11.4 or subsequently. That'due south because this update added AirPlay 2, which is essentially the wireless glue that will concord any HomePods multi-room system together. If you lot have an original HomePod, brand sure it's all defenseless up on its software updates as well, though the HomePod mini is new enough that it should work correct out of the box.

HomePod and HomePod mini multi-room: Setting upwards the speakers

Apple HomePod multi-room setup — (Image credit: Apple)

If you lot haven't performed the basic setup process on your HomePods however — if they're brand new, for instance — and then go them up and running as you unremarkably would. Plug in, plough on, and when a pulsing white light appears on top, hold your source device over the top to pair information technology. From there, just follow the on-screen instructions.

During this process, yous'll be asked to assign each HomePod to a certain room — living room, bathroom, master bedroom and so on. This volition make it really piece of cake to control each speaker via Siri once everything is ready.

To change which room a HomePod is assigned to, simply follow these steps:

ane. Open the Home app on your mobile device, then press the Settings icon.

ii. Tap 'Room' then select the new room you want to select. And that'due south that.

AirPlay ii as well allows you to add third-party speakers from the likes of Bose, Bang & Olufsen and Sonos into your multi-room organisation, though some users have reported audio playing slightly out of sync with Apple speakers in the same system. We'd therefore recommend sticking with HomePods and HomePod minis for a consistent arrangement.

HomePod and HomePod mini multi-room: Setting up a stereo pair

This is optional, and only makes sense if you lot have two HomePod speakers in the same room in add-on to spread throughout your abode. Still, if you want to use two HomePods or HomePod minis in a item-rich stereo configuration — such as if you want to employ them every bit the audio-out for your Apple TV — follow these steps.

i. Make certain both speakers are assigned to the same room; yous can bank check this in the Home app.

2. Staying in the Dwelling app, impact and hold on ane of the speakers then tap the Settings icon.

iii. Tap 'Create Stereo Pair' and follow the on-screen instructions.

This will both create the stereo pairing and arrive appear as a new device in the Home app. To configure the stereo pair further, press and concur on it in Home and tap the Settings icon. From here you lot can break upward the pair, or select which speaker produces the left and correct channels.

Call back, too, that while you tin can have whatsoever combination of HomePods and HomePod minis in a wider multi-room setup, a stereo pair need to be 2 of the same speaker model – you can't have a HomePod and a HomePod mini paired together.

HomePod and HomePod mini multi-room: Controlling the music

At this indicate, the hardware setup is effectively complete – different when setting upwardly Amazon Echo speakers for multi-room sound, HomePods and HomePod minis slot into multi-room configurations automatically, provided they're all wirelessly connected to the same source device. There's no need to manually designate them as multi-room speakers in any app.

All that'southward left is to start playing some tunes, and for Apple Music content this is the easiest office yet. Only give Siri a voice command specifying what you want to play, and on which speakers.

For example, if you just desire music in a unmarried room, yous could say something like "Hey Siri, play Foo Fighters in the living room." Yous could and then ask Siri to play something else in a different room, or combine the two in a unmarried command, such as "Hey Siri, play The Beatles in the kitchen and my workout playlist in the living room."

A command similar "Hey Siri, play jazz music everywhere" will play the same music over ever speaker in the system. Don't forget that Siri can be used to raise or lower volumes as well. Just specify the speaker or speakers you lot want or adjust, or over again, apply "everywhere" to set the book for the entire speaker network.

Apple HomePod mini multi-room setup — (Paradigm credit: Apple)

When playing music from sources other than Apple Music, yous can yet utilise Siri for commands like "Play music from Spotify" or to tune into a radio station by saying the call messages. Withal, your ability to control which speaker plays what content will be relatively express compared to Siri's integration with Apple Music.

Instead, you can use the Control Center app on your mobile device. Here'south how information technology works:

1. Start playing music from your device, such as via the Spotify app.

2.Open up Command Center and printing and concur the Music Control section.

3. Select the music y'all're already playing and tap the AirPlay icon. This should bring up a list of available speakers.

4.Tap each speaker to start playing music through it, or tap it again to stop.

You lot can echo these steps to get dissimilar music playing in different rooms, though simply make sure that one speaker is already playing the song you want before moving on to the next. This process involves repeatedly starting new songs on your mobile device, and potentially across multiple apps, so restarting before a speaker has received and is playing the song means you lot'll have to start over.

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James is currently Hardware Editor at Rock Paper Shotgun, but earlier that was Audio Editor at Tom's Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and anything else that intentionally makes noise. A PC enthusiast, he besides wrote computing and gaming news for TG, commonly relating to how hard it is to notice graphics carte stock.