Remote control for HomePod, not using AirPlay

Quick update: Nope.

Slightly slower update: The Now Playing watch sub-app and the Music app now seem to be entirely separate. What's more, there is no way of getting to the Now Playing screen if you're not in it. If it's set to auto-start on music play, we do get the screen at first (with nice HP icon at top):

As I mentioned above, I find it a ****** nuisance when this comes up automatically. But, if one navigates away from this at some point, there is no way to get it back (it doesn't appear in the app list, absurdly). Only stopping the playback and restarting it works (until you need the watch for something else). I've tried restarting the watch, that didn't help.

You can actually initiate play from the watch music app, attaching to the HomePod, but that turns out to be just Airplay from the phone.That NP screen is subtly different:

Oh, and the phone music interface goes back to its native state after a while, whereupon it needs reconnection to the HP directly.

So I'm still hanging in mid-Airplay. Eh bien, thanks anyway folks. Once more unto the breach, and all that.

Rob

Fascinating; don’t know how I missed this, but thanks very much! I’ve had nothing but bother with Airplay (losing sync with the interfaces, and stopping). I found this way of playing a while ago, but assumed it was just another route into Airplay. I’ll try it out to see if the stopping stops.

One disadvantage; the watch Now Playing does not pick up this version of the Now Playing screen, and that’s what I need to use to fine-tune the volume. Siri is... um, hit and miss there (and everywhere else); can’t change the volume ”by” a percentage (Siri, what’s a preposition?) There needs to be a visible percentage in the controls for this. Something else I should feed back to Apple about.

Oh, and the phone’s Now Playing screen loses its place too, and reverts back to whatever it was connected to, showing that music, after a few minutes. The music continues, but the controls won’t work unless it’s reconnected by the method above.

But here’s hoping Airplay 2 arrives soon, as this is not a long-term solution; the device is pretty much unusable in its current state.

You can control HomePod with Apple watch, with the latest update. There is a trick though. As above, you have to activate control of HomePod with your iphone (In control center or Apple Music). Then, HomePod shows up in now playing screen on the watch.

Aha! Thank you both! I hadn't even thought to check that(at least not yet).

I'll be trying this out at length; it could be a game-changer. Will also have to see if this interface remains persistent while playing, as it didn't before. Now that the watch music app has been fixed, I use that Now Playing rather than the separate one (having disabled its auto-start; just a preference). There doesn't seem to be a lock screen interface on the phone, however. Can probs live without that.

Great stuff, though, cheers all.

Once active, you can add the Now Playing app to the dock. It also shows up usually in the Siri watch face.

One potential issue is how long does the HomePod stay the active device on the phone as this is a prerequisite for controlling HomePod with the watch. I don’t totally understand why this should necessarily be the case, but it seems to be. It’s more logical when you think of watch being a satellite device to phone rather than an autonomous device.

In other words, now playing can control music play on the watch or the current audio device on the phone.

I enjoy directly directly controlling the HomePod on the iPhone's Now Playing screen, but find that it switches back to the phone music app's Now Playing screen after a few minutes. This occurs even if the music app is inactive and the HomePod has been playing continuously. Has this been your experience as well? Perhaps forthcoming updates (Airplay 2, etc.) will fix this, but so far I haven't figured out a workaround.

FWIW:

iPhone 6s, iOS 11.3.1

HomePod 11.3

That's it! You're brilliant! Totally solved my problem. Now it works more or less the same as a Sonos, with the possible exception that this functionality only works with the AppleMusic service. In other words, is there a way to do the same thing from say Tidal, Spotify, Pandora, Audible, a podcast, etc.?

I tried this and it's playing music from my library - but I don't know which music it's playing. I would like to control whether it plays Christmas music or not. And I'd like my Home Pod to use Apple Music to select music it thinks I would like. I see that when I got my Home Pod and needed Apple Music, my phone and pad's music program got a heart icon, which I'm guessing is Apple Music recommendations. I don't see anything similar on my iMac's iTunes.

Looking on my phone, I see an "up next" selection, but haven't inferred any rules about where it selects the music from.

I can tell my Home Pod to play my "Practice" playlist, but it doesn't understand when I tell it to play my "My top rated", or my "My not bad" playlists.

I don't know how to tell my iTunes or my HomePod to play music it thinks I would like, from Apple Music. I *can* tell my HomePod to play a category of music, but don't know how to do the same thing with my iPad or iTunes.

Current status:

I have some playlists that my HomePod finds, and others it doesn’t.
I have tried multiple renames of playlists, and have told iTunes/File/Library/Update iCloud Music Library multiple times. I have tried playlists both on and off of a subfolder.
I have Apple Music (only to access my iTunes), but not Match.

I have turned off my HomePod and added it back in.

I have added the cloud icon to display in my iTunes lists, and sorted by it to make sure I didn’t have any clouds in songs selected.

I’ve simplified names from what they were before to make it easy to say:

“Hey Siri, play Best playlist”.

Here’s results:

Best Best of the week

Good Feeling Good Now

OK It’s OK to be Sad Now

Practice Practice

Radio Stations (a different radio station, not the one I have in this playlist)

(My radio station is not eligible to be in the iCloud music library anyway)

Sound of Music Sound of Music

5 Star 5 Star

Filk Filk

Jazz Jazz

It would be nice to simplify the name of podcasts, but the one I care about most is purchased, and I had to do special stuff to get it to my iTunes.
So I use my HomePod as a remote speaker for it or for radio stations.

Many thanks, I shoulda thought of that! On it goes 😱