When you play music on a HomePod you can easily control it via the iPhone, but did you know that you can also easily manage the music from an Apple Watch ? You can then skip a song, pause or adjust the volume via the smartwatch. Of course, you can also consult your music library from the Apple Watch, and start a new playlist or album on the HomePod.
Automatically control HomePod via Apple Watch
Thanks to a smart function, you can automatically control the HomePod via your Apple Watch as soon as it plays audio. This is made possible with the ‘Automatically launch audio apps’ feature. Once the HomePod plays music, the media switches are activated on the Apple Watch via the Now Playing app.
Some Apple Watch users have disabled this feature because it can be quite a distraction, but it’s still interesting to keep the option enabled in combination with a HomePod.
- Open the Apple Watch application on your iPhone
- Navigate to ‘Display & Brightness’
- Enable the option ‘Start audio apps automatically’
As soon as you play music on the HomePod and turn the Apple Watch towards you after a few moments, you will see that the ‘current view’ is activated. In it, you see the media keys to managing the music on the smart speaker.
Manually Control HomePod via Watch
Don’t want the Apple Watch to automatically show the media keys when you play audio on a HomePod? Then you can also activate it manually. To do this, open the ‘Current’ application on your Apple Watch, which can be recognized by the play button with red lines. Tap the back arrow at the top and select the HomePod from the list. You can then operate the smart speaker from the watch.
Play music from Apple Watch on HomePod
Open the music application, scroll all the way up and tap the ‘On iPhone’ option. Your entire iPhone music library will open, now play music and tap the AirPlay button (triangle with waves). Then choose ‘HomePod’.
Note that you stream the music from your iPhone to the HomePod via AirPlay. Of course, you can also play the music that is physically on the Apple Watch on the HomePod, even then you stream via AirPlay.