Hey Siri Detection, Homepod Mini, and WiFi Disconnects

I enjoy using my Homepod Minis, especially using them as speakerphones for my iPhone (though I hope Apple will eventually enable a homepod glow on incoming calls). Thinking I was doing the smart thing, I disabled "Hey Siri" detection on my iPhone, instead enabling it on the Homepod to detect and then do my bidding (usually, "Answer the phone.").

But: my Homepods starting having problems connecting to the iPhone -- not to the Internet for routine information queries, but to the iPhone itself, to send a text or place a call. I finally did some (lots of) troubleshooting, figuring I was running into the standard "iPhones disable wifi when the phone locks" feature. After some frustrating network troubleshooting, I ended up pinging the iPhone and watched it go off-network after a few seconds' lock time. Playing music from the iPhone through the Homepods keeps the connection active, but who wants to do that?

Turns out the problem was KINDA my own making: issuing a "Hey Siri" command to the Homepod fails, but turning it back on at the iPhone allows "Hey Siri" to quickly wake the phone's wifi connection, so that by the time I say "answer the phone," the Homepod hears the command and can communicate with the iPhone properly. That's not exactly ideal, as it means I can't leave my iPhone in one room and answer via the Homepod in another; but it at least makes sense.

Hope this helps someone avoid hours of needless troubleshooting in similar scenarios.

Jim

BTW, I've read repeatedly that keeping the iPhone powered on prevents the wifi radio from sleeping: not so on my iPhone 11 with IOS 18.4. Powered or not, the wifi radio sleeps on lock (but the wifi indicator changes not).