Richard's Tech Reviews

Automating HomePod to device Handoff with Shortcuts, for switching to headphones

Apple's Shortcuts is a powerful automation feature.  You can basically script a set of actions.

In addition, you can activate Shortcuts by name (including renaming them to whatever phrase you want), using Siri on your iOS device or your HomePod.

Handoff is a way to switch audio from your device to the HomePod, or from the HomePod to your device.

It is supposed to work by bringing your device near the top of the HomePod, but I couldn't get this to work.

You would create the below set of actions using the Shortcuts app on your iOS device.

Shortcut to Switch Audio (Handoff) from HomePod to iOS device

For the life of me I don't know why Apple hasn't just clearly documented every possible shortcuts command online.

Anyway, the shortcut you want is

Hand off playback from [device Source] to [device Destination]

Yes, it is two words, "hand off". To handoff from your HomePod to your iOS device, it's going to be your HomePod name, e.g. it might be called "Den HomePod".

So the Shortcut will look something like

Hand off playback from Den HomePod to iPad.

Shortcut to Switch to Headphones

Once you've switched to your iOS device, there is an additional step if you want to switch to headphones.

The syntax is

Set playback destination to [audio destination]

Again you will need to use your local device name, e.g. "My Cool AirPods Pro". Shortcuts will give you a picklist of available audio devices. Your device will probably need to be connected in order to show up.

Set playback destination to My Cool AirPods Pro

Maybe Optional: Actually Make It Play

I wasn't able to do enough testing to determine whether the audio just switches over and plays continuously, or if you need to give it a nudge to play again. If it doesn't play automatically, try adding the shortcut

Play on [devicename]

e.g.

Play on iPhone

Full Script

So a full example script for switching audio from your Den HomePod to your iPhone, and then playing on My Cool AirPods Pro is:

Hand off playback from Den HomePod to iPhone
Set playback destination to My Cool AirPods Pro
Play on iPhone

Give It A Name

You probably want to rename this something like

Switch from HomePod to Headphones

(or "to big / small / black / white headphones" if you have multiple different headphones - you'll need a shortcut for each set of headphones and each shortcut will need a different name)

All being equal, with any audio stream playing on your HomePod you should now be able to just say

"Hey Siri, Switch from HomePod to Headphones"

and the audio should move from your HomePod to your headphones, via your iOS device.

Appendix: Personal Requests

You will almost certainly need Personal Requests enabled to make this work.

You will need to enable Voice Recognition

Apple - Set up voice recognition on HomePod or HomePod mini

and then Personal Requests.

Apple HomePod User Guide - Set up voice recognition and Personal Requests

It will only work for requests using your voice.

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Let me know if it works or if you encounter any problems.

Audiobooks on Smart Speakers in 2024

There is no interoperability; vendors only support voice control of audiobooks from their own stores on their own devices or apps.

Amazon smart speakers

The Amazon voice assistant Alexa can control audiobooks on Amazon smart speakers (e.g. Amazon Echo), but for Amazon Audible only (Amazon owns Audible).

See Audible (an Amazon Company) - Voice Commands for Listening on Alexa Devices.

Google smart speakers

Google is discontinuing support for audiobooks on its smart speakers.

Google is removing the audiobook feature in 2024:

• Playing and controlling audiobooks on Google Play Books with your voice [will no longer be supported]. You can still cast audiobooks from your mobile device.

Apple HomePod smart speakers

Information below for iOS 17 / iPadOS 17 / HomePod 17 (and later versions).

You will need to enable Voice Recognition

Apple - Set up voice recognition on HomePod or HomePod mini

and Personal Requests. 

Apple HomePod User Guide - Set up voice recognition and Personal Requests

It will only work for requests using your voice, for content from your device.  It's not playing it centrally from an Apple server, it's airplaying it from your device (which means if you try to play other audio from your device strange things will probably happen).  It uses the Books app on your device, so you will have to have Books installed.

The syntax is just to say "play audiobook [audiobook title] on Books".

e.g.

"Hey Siri, play audiobook The Thursday Murder Club on Books"

and, all things being equal, it should start playing on your HomePod.

Appendix: Amazon Audible app

Just as a side note, you can also voice control the Audible app on an iOS device, but only if the app is open and in the foreground.  This is on the device only, it won't work through a smart speaker as far as I know.

Amazon Audible newsroom: Hands-Free Listening Comes to the Audible App. Just Ask Alexa.

“Alexa, read The Sandman.”

This is just one of many voice commands that the Audible app can understand

What's new in Apple Shortcuts

Apple Shortcuts is a powerful capability, particularly when combined with Siri's ability to execute Shortcuts by name (including from the HomePod, if you have Personal Requests enabled).

Apple's documentation of Shortcuts is eccentric, and there is even weaker documentation for third-party (non-Apple) applications that support Shortcuts.

Apple provides documentation about what's new in a strange fragmented set of web pages.

• What's new in Shortcuts (iOS 17 versions)
• What's new in Shortcuts (iOS 16 versions)
• What‘s new in Shortcuts in iOS 15.4 and macOS 12.3

Books added a bunch of new shortcut actions in iOS 16.2: Open Book, Play Audiobook, Change Book Appearance, Change Page Navigation, Change View in Books, Open Collection, Search in Books, and Turn Page.

The master documentation is Shortcuts User Guide (for iPhone and iPad).

Shortcuts are not to be confused with SiriKit Media Intents.

For example, now that HomePod 17 supports Siri-initiated AirPlay from your device using Personal Requests, you can just use Siri to AirPlay audiobooks by title from the Apple Books app (since it supports both Siri AirPlay and SiriKit Media Intents), rather than needing to use custom Siri Shortcuts.

Playing BBC Radio 3 and 4 on HomePod

Right now, the HomePod will match against TuneIn and play BBC Radio without issues.

These should work:

• "Hey Siri, play BBC Radio 3"
• "Hey Siri, play BBC Radio 4"

(This is as opposed to Google Assistant on Sonos, which inexplicably will play BBC Radio 4 Extra when you ask for BBC Radio 4.)

The Future - BBC Account Access through BBC Sounds

It's not clear how long the BBC will allow open international access to BBC Radio streams.  They really want you to listen only through the BBC Sounds application, which requires a (currently free) BBC Account.

Forcing you to an app (rather than a website or radio service stream) and forcing you to use an account is all dark pattern web tracking and monetization stuff, transforming the ad-free BBC radio stream to a junk cluttered audio mess. 

Using the BBC – Why do I have to provide personal info when I register outside the UK?

because outside the UK the BBC is commercially funded, BBC Global News Limited also use it to personalise your advertising experience. If you’d prefer we didn’t use your information in this way, you can change your cookie settings.

Using the BBC – How can I change my BBC cookie settings?

If you’re outside the UK, you’ll see advertising, including commercial content recommendations, sponsored content and promotional messages. We use the income from advertising to help fund BBC services, including making BBC Online available outside the UK. Find out more about personalised advertising cookies.

So I don't even know if it will be bearable to listen to the radio streams anymore.  One would hope they at least offer a paid ad-free tier internationally, as the BBC History Extra podcast currently does.

Using Shortcuts

At such time as the radio streams are no longer available, you'll have to go through the BBC Sounds app.  Ideally the app needs to support SiriKit Media Intents.  I don't know that it does.

It definitely supports Shortcuts although the behaviour is really confusing.

Rather than just exposing all of its Shortcuts so you can make your own code, BBC Sounds only displays the shortcut (in the Shortcuts app) while it is playing the station.  So if you want a shortcut to Play BBC Radio 3, you first have to:

1. Go to the BBC Sounds app (you'll have to login with a BBC Account that you can create for free)
2. Start playing BBC Radio 3
3. Switch to the Apple Shortcuts application
4. See the "Play Radio 3" shortcut that has appeared, and use it to make your own permanent shortcut.
5. (You may want to rename it to "Play BBC Radio 3" depending on your preferences.  Note that Shortcut names are checked first; they override even built-in Siri functions.)

The behavior of the shortcut was not what I expected, because when I invoked the shortcut from the HomePod, it started playing on the device (e.g. on the iPad), not on the HomePod.

I don't know if this is a bug or intended functionality.  You might need to add extra steps in the shortcut to switch the audio output.

For more on how to make shortcuts that you can access from Siri on HomePod, see Shortcuts User Guide and Use Siri to run shortcuts with your voice.

Setting a sleep timer on HomePod or iOS

A sleep timer is a countdown timer that stops whatever is playing once it completes the countdown.  For example, if you set a 45 minute sleep timer and you're playing audio on your device, the audio will stop playing after 45 minutes.

On HomePod

You can just say

"Hey Siri, set a sleep timer for x minutes"

and it will stop playing when the timer runs out.

In iOS

The generic way to do this on iOS / iPadOS is to go to Clock ->Timers and for When Timer Ends, at the very bottom of all the sound options, select Stop Playing.

In iOS 17.1 you can now name timers and have a history of previous timers, so you could have different named sleep timers depending on how much time you want.

There are also app-specific timers, e.g. in Books you can click on the sleepy moon icon (a moon with zzz above it) to set a sleep timer, but I like using just the generic timer since it works across all applications (including video).

SIDEBAR: The missing feature of actually detecting sleep

Apple has an obvious missed opportunity for Watch integration, since your watch knows when you've fallen asleep (more or less).  There should be a system-wide "stop playing when I fall asleep" option.

There is at least one app that does this.  I haven't tried it, but it's called Sleep When I Sleep, from AppleVis.