Set up HomePod
HomePod and HomePod mini are smart speakers with the intelligence of Siri. With Siri, it’s easy to control HomePod through natural voice interaction, allowing you to play your favorite music and podcasts, get help with everyday questions or tasks, and control your smart home accessories—all with just your voice.
Before you begin, update your iPhone or iPod touch to iOS 14.1 or later, or update your iPad to iPadOS 14.1 or later. Make sure that your iOS or iPadOS device has Bluetooth® turned on, and that it’s connected to the Wi-Fi network that you want HomePod to use.
Set up HomePod for the first time
Plug in HomePod and wait until the light on top pulses white.
Hold your unlocked iOS or iPadOS device within a few inches of HomePod until the setup screen appears.
Tap Set Up and follow the onscreen instructions.
If the setup screen doesn’t appear automatically
Open the Home app on your iOS or iPadOS device, then tap
.Tap Add Accessory, then tap “I Don’t Have a Code or Cannot Scan.”
Tap HomePod in the Nearby Accessories list.
Tap Set Up and follow the onscreen instructions.
If HomePod doesn’t appear in the Nearby Accessories list, see the Apple Support article If you can’t set up HomePod.
Set up voice recognition
You can teach Siri to recognize different voices in your home. If you’ve invited others to share your home (in the Home app), members of your home can request their own music and make Personal Requests. To learn more about Personal Requests, see the task below.
To learn how to add someone to your home, see Allow others to control accessories in your home in the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch User Guide.
Note: Voice recognition is not available in all languages and regions.
To set up voice recognition on HomePod, each member of the home must do the following on their iOS or iPadOS device:
Go to Settings > [user name] > Password & Security, then make sure Two-Factor Authentication is turned on.
In the Home app, touch and hold a HomePod, scroll down, tap
, then make sure Listen for “Hey Siri” is turned on.Tap
, then follow the onscreen instructions.If setup instructions do not appear, tap
, tap Home Settings, tap a user profile under People, then turn on Recognize My Voice.
During setup, each person is asked to enable Siri and change their device language to match the HomePod language, if they haven’t already done so.
Set up Personal Requests
Personal Requests are Siri commands that use info from apps on your iOS or iPadOS device, including Messages, Reminders, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, and other apps you’ve installed that work with Siri.
Before you can turn on Personal Requests, you need to set up voice recognition. See the task above.
To set up Personal Requests, do the following on your iOS or iPadOS device:
Connect your iOS or iPadOS device and HomePod to the same Wi-Fi network.
Go to Settings > Siri & Search, then turn on the following:
Listen for “Hey Siri”
Press Side Button for Siri (on an iPhone with Face ID), Press Top Button for Siri (on an iPad with Face ID), or Press Home for Siri (on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with a Home button)
Allow Siri When Locked
Go to Settings > [your name] > Find My, then make sure My Location is set to This Device.
In the Home app, tap
, then tap Home Settings.Note: If you have more than one home, you see settings for your current home (based on your location). To edit a different home, tap Homes, then tap the home you want to edit.
Tap your name, tap Personal Requests, then turn on Personal Requests for your HomePod.
If you don’t see Personal Requests, turn on Recognize My Voice to set up voice recognition. Personal Requests can be turned on during setup.
If you want to use HomePod to access the contents of Calendar, Notes, Reminders, voicemail, and call history, choose Never under Require Authentication.
To learn more about what you can do with Personal Requests, see Make Personal Requests on HomePod.
For enhanced security and network performance you may be asked to enable two-factor authentication for your Apple ID, or set your Wi-Fi network to use WPA/WPA2 security, if you haven’t already done so.
During setup, the Wi-Fi settings, Siri preferences, Apple ID, Analytics preferences, Location Services preferences, and Apple Music subscription currently configured for your iOS or iPadOS device are copied to HomePod. You’ll also set up Siri, if you haven’t already done so. After HomePod is up and running, you can use the Home app to change its name, its room assignment, and other settings.