Apple at WWDC 2019 today announced that the HomePod is gaining Handoff support, allowing users to place an iPhone near the HomePod to hand over music, podcast, or a phone call.
Apple also announced that AirPods are getting a new Audio Sharing feature, allowing users to share a song or movie with a friend with just a tap.
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Not only does handover fix this, the physical act of “picking up” or ‘dropping off” what’s playing by putting your iPhone near the HomePod is ingenious. This is pure Apple on display.
You can’t just put one leg into this ecosystem - jump on in it’s worth it!
HomePods throughout the house to AirPods, Apple Watch out the door is amazing.
Whenever you’re playing music, hit the AirPlay button in the playback controls and choose your HomePod. It’s also in Control Centre.
As for playing your own music, that requires iTunes Match. It’s a service to get your music into the cloud. If you purchase Match, you can convert your own library to listen to it anywhere like Apple Music, even if it’s not downloaded to your device.
As expected, Apple can strategically make Apple Music available everywhere to compete with Spotify while also offering their own premium, native solution to listening to music in an Apple type experience.
I’m fact, putting Apple Music on Amazon Echo will actually help sell HomePods. A lot of people have Echos already. Making Apple Music available there, keeps them on Apple Music rather than moving to Spotify if it were the only option. Eventually, those people will build brand loyalty to Apple Music and will want better sound and a native Apple Music experience.