SharePlay Music Control Expanding to HomePod and Apple TV

[MacRumors]

Starting with iOS 17.4 and tvOS 17.4, currently in beta, Apple has expanded SharePlay music control to HomePod speakers and the Apple TV. The feature was tipped to us by Hidde Collee, Aaron Perris, and Benjamin Xing.

This feature allows family and friends to control the music that is playing on your HomePod or Apple TV with permission. For now, this is limited to the Music app, but the other people do not need to have an Apple Music subscription in order to participate.

Apple already rolled out a similar feature for CarPlay last year, allowing anyone in a car to control music playback via SharePlay with permission.

The primary user can decide whether to approve or deny each request.

HomePod

While playing a song in the Music app on your iPhone, tap the SharePlay icon at the bottom of the screen to bring up a QR code, which another person can scan with their iPhone or Android smartphone's camera to request access to music playback controls. Even a screenshot of the QR code suffices, allowing you to remotely grant access to people around the world if so desired.

The feature works on both the HomePod and HomePod mini, and we could imagine the QR code eventually being shown on the long-rumored HomePod with a screen.

Apple TV

With the tvOS 17.4 update, the Music app on the Apple TV can also show a QR code on the TV that guests can scan to request access to music controls.

The expansion of this feature to the Apple TV and the HomePod is useful for house parties, allowing everyone to be the DJ.

The first beta versions of iOS 17.4, tvOS 17.4, and HomePod software version 17.4 were made available to developers on Thursday for testing. Apple said iOS 17.4 will be released in March, so we can expect the other updates to launch then too.

Article Link: SharePlay Music Control Expanding to HomePod and Apple TV

 

[miguelcoma]

Wait this is actually great! When I've had friends over at home, they often ask if they can add music to the playlist but they are all Spotify users and I use Apple Music so this will finally solve that for me.

 

[chabig]

I can update my HomePods remotely when I’m away from home, using the Home app. I wish Apple would add the same capability to the AppleTV.

 

[midkay]

I love this feature in CarPlay, great to see it coming to Apple TV as well. It's awesome how only the primary user needs to be an Apple Music subscriber and everyone else can just tag onto their account.

 

[alayal]

Hopefully coming to the my 2 original HomePods.

 

[bodhisattva]

Wait this is actually great! When I've had friends over at home, they often ask if they can add music to the playlist but they are all Spotify users and I use Apple Music so this will finally solve that for me

To be clear, they will not be able to share from Spotify. They will be opening their Apple Music app and simply piggybacking off of your Apple Music account to play whatever music they want.

 

[ignatius345]

To be clear, they will not be able to share from Spotify. They will be opening their Apple Music app and simply piggybacking off of your Apple Music account to play whatever music they want.

IF they have iPhones, right? Does any of this work with Android phones, out of curiousity?

 

[neworleans-7]

I wish this same functionality could be done when you're playing music through a bluetooth speaker.

 

[Macaholic868]

IF they have iPhones, right? Does any of this work with Android phones, out of curiousity?

Well there is an Apple Music app for Android but I have no clue how good it is or isn’t and whether it’ll support this or not.

 

[mickobizzle]

To be clear, they will not be able to share from Spotify. They will be opening their Apple Music app and simply piggybacking off of your Apple Music account to play whatever music they want.

it *is* possible for a guest iphone user with Spotify to stream to your airplay network.
But this replaces the existing playlist/content/queue that was in progress for Music.
not possible to add Spotify tracks to a Music queue, in case that's what you meant, @bodhisattva

Here's how a guest iphone user can stream Spotify to your Airplay network:
1. join your wifi
2. homepods (and/or tvs) configured to be sharable-to (choices are "anyone", "must be on same network", and "must have access to Home"; there is also "conference room" mode, but I don't think that it's compatible at all with Home (?) )
3. guest just chooses which speakers to airplay to from airplay menu (*1)
4. voila. (i think there's a confirmation to answer, if ok to replace what's playing?)

if you're a Spotify user, it can take some getting used to, the idea that each speaker can have a unique or synchronized stream.
you must have an Apple Music "family" plan to be able to use unique streams for specific speakers on the same account subscription.(*2)

even cooler is to invite guest user to your Home. (*3)
then they get a unique user profile on Tv, and then super easy to airplay and use Siri.
the invite is sent over imessage, and the recipient must have notifications on for Home app, or go in to Home app to receive the invitation.

ALSO (OTHER RAMBLING)
*1 i wish the airplay device picker weren't so wonky when there are several devices involved. it's quite amusing to watch it connect, disconnect, unjoin, rejoin, reconnect, disconnect, and do a dance, for about 15 seconds. it's like watching a slot machine, and unfortunately when it comes to a stop, it's usually not what you were hoping for. spin again! (I really need to open a Feedback for this, with a video!)
*2 this is particularly bothersome if i have music playing on the speakers and i touch/click on/start a photo-montage-video-with-music that the photos widget has come up with. the music halts, and i have to go and recompose my airplay speaker set. :/. (need to put in a Feedback for this, too)
*3 i wish it were simpler to invite a guest to Home so they can share music, like how easy it is to share a wifi password. (i put in an enhancement ticket for this about a year ago? oh wait. maybe this is how they implemented it. )

P.S.
I wonder how Collaborative Playlists factor into this new feature.

 

[ignatius345]

*1 i wish the airplay device picker weren't so wonky when there are several devices involved. it's quite amusing to watch it connect, disconnect, unjoin, rejoin, reconnect, disconnect, and do a dance, for about 15 seconds. it's like watching a slot machine, and unfortunately when it comes to a stop, it's usually not what you were hoping for. spin again!

100% agree. I'm using three HomePods now (two Minis and one full sized first-gen) and it can definitely get a bit wonky. Of late, iOS *mostly* does an ok job of remembering the grouping you used last time you played back, but changing is still a slow and clunky process. I think part of that is that the interface to do it is mostly tiny and buried in the UI. Except when, randomly, a larger AirPlay control appears on the lock screen sometimes. I don't get why we don't have a nice, large consistent dedicated control for what's happening in AirPlay in your home.

What truly kills me is that you can't control speaker grouping at all using the speaker itself. For instance, most mornings I tell my kitchen HomePod Mini to play my local NPR radio station. Sometimes if I was playing music the day before, it's still grouped to play pretty loud in the living room -- too loud for radio early in the morning. So now I'm frantically clawing at my phone to get to the controls, or hitting the top of the kitchen HomePod to stop playback altogether, or maybe just darting over to the living room to physically hit the volume controls on the top of that HomePod.

What I'd LIKE to do is tell Siri "play WNYC in the kitchen only" but no matter how I phrase it, it just says "sorry, I can't tell which speaker you're referring to" -- which is bat**** stupid because it knows (or SHOULD know) which speaker is in the kitchen. I even tried "play WNYC on this speaker only" and it still couldn't figure it out.

 

[svish]

Great to see that this feature is expanding to other devices. Will be very useful

 

[Macaholic868]

IF they have iPhones, right? Does any of this work with Android phones, out of curiousity?

The answer is that collaborative playlists do work on Android devices if you or your friends download the Apple Music app.

How to collaborate on a playlist in Apple Music on your iPhone, iPad, or Android​

How to collaborate on a playlist in Apple Music on your iPhone, iPad, or Android - Apple Support

With Apple Music, you can start a collaborative playlist. Invite friends to join your playlist. Add your favorite songs. And react to songs that others add with emojis.

support.apple.com