No waveform icon and intercom doesn’t work iOS 14.2

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No waveform icon and intercom doesn’t work iOS 14.2

I have a brand new iPhone 12 and I just installed iOS 14.2. The intercom feature shows up with all the necessary options but the feature doesn’t work with my iPod

— When I tell Siri to intercom a message using my iPhone I get a message saying “to do that, turn on the intercom in the home settings of your home app” but when I check it is turned on.

— When I go to the home app, there is supposed to a waveform icon in the upper right corner but there isn’t, just a standard plus symbol.

As far as I can see I am up-to-date on all iPhone and iPod settings and everything is configured properly so I don’t know what else to do. I have tried reinstalling HomePod and rebooting the phone with no luck

Posted on Nov 6, 2020 3:02 AM

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Answer 1

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sgmerley Author

Level 1

27 points

Nov 6, 2020 3:02 PM in response to sgmerley

OK, I figured it out (smacks head). there are three sections in the intercom settings- Receive notifications when..., People, HomePod. I am the only one listed under "People" and for some reason the toggle switch was off. Once I switched it on, the waveform appeared and I was able to successfully send an intercom message.

I'm glad that it's working now but I have to say these settings are not very obvious or will explained. Still, all's well that ends well.

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Answer 2

gk_brown

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9 points

Nov 6, 2020 2:58 PM in response to sgmerley

Updating my HomePod to 14.2 and/or inviting additional family members resolved part of the problem for me. I can now see the waveform icon, and can send messages to the HomePod. But I can still only select "never" for notifications on my phone. The other two options are still not available.

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Answer 3

sgmerley Author

Level 1

27 points

Nov 6, 2020 3:32 PM in response to sgmerley

OK, now I see why I was so confused. There are two different groups of settings for Intercom. The first one is in the home app- "Home Settings" The second is for the HomePod itself which you get to with a long press .on the HomePod icon. They seem to overlap and I find the whole system very convoluted. Apple really needs to rethink this.

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Answer 4

gk_brown

Level 1

9 points

Nov 6, 2020 6:19 AM in response to sgmerley

Similar issue here. No waveform icon, and the only option for "receive notifications when" is "never". Based on what I've seen, there should be additional options for "when I'm home" and "anywhere".

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Answer 5

sgmerley Author

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27 points

Nov 6, 2020 7:32 AM in response to gk_brown

Well I do have those two additional options but it still doesn't work

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Answer 6

gk_brown

Level 1

9 points

Nov 6, 2020 4:27 PM in response to sgmerley

Agreed. The entire Home experience is confusing and fairly un-Apple-like.

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Answer 7

Dec 7, 2020 7:14 AM in response to sgmerley

Thanks for listing this issue. Waveform icon wasn’t showing up on my wife’s phone cuz her name was toggled off in the People section of the Intercom settings. The icon immediately appeared once I toggled her on.

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No waveform icon and intercom doesn’t work iOS 14.2

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