HomePod and Home Sharing

It's a big fail in my view too, but we are probably a small percentage of users.

Can someone Airplay as a guest? This would suggest so:

I'm perhaps not too bothered about Siri as providing latest iOS still supports Home Sharing it would be potentially possible to Airplay using an iOS device or use in Guest mode for other services?

No it is not supported. For me it's, No HomeSharing, No HomePod, that simple. Like very many others, I have an extensive iTunes Library built up from before iTunes (SoundJam) from the very many CD's I own that I want to listen to.

I am not surprised though, HomeSharing has been sadly neglected and is virtually non-functional from iTunes today. It takes over 15 minutes (if it works) for my library to appear on my iPhone or iPad. I already have a Sonos sound system for my TV so if I am going to have to use airPlay from my iDevices, I may as well stick with that and buy some more. At half the price of the HomePod it is an attractive proposition.

I have many purchased tracks in my iTunes Home Sharing library that my HomePod cannot conveniently play. I initially had good experiences broadcasting to the HomePod using AirPlay, but last night AirPlay performed abysmally, dropping its connecting every few minutes. I'm hopeful that will shake out and improve with time (especially when AirPlay2 arrives), but what would REALLY help would be for Apple to enable Siri to play from my iTunes Home Sharing library to my HomePod. These are all my songs available on my Wifi network to all my other Apple devices (iPhone, iPads, etc.) all within my Apple ecosystem, so I cannot think of any technical reason why they shouldn't be equally available to my HomePod! I very much hope Apple reconsiders and makes this available in a near-future update.

If you have an Apple TV 3 or 4 you can change the audio output to select HomePod. My current setup uses the apple tv connected to my stereo amp so there would be a slight inconvenience in changing audio output to suit.

The better solution as has been suggested is to allow Siri to play from your own library. A few extra commands such as Siri use home library and Siri use Apple Music. The big problem is I don’t think Siri can search your own library.

I going to wait and see how the stereo system works with HomePod before making a commitment.

It would be very disappointing if it wasn’t supported. I have a large iTunes library of ripped cds. I was considering replacing my old cd/amp and speakers but may not now.