HomePod OS 26: These innovations are in Apple’s new firmware

Not only Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV got an upgrade this month, but also the HomePod software alias Homepod OS received an update. This new version is also based on Apple’s new number of years, so it is consequently called HomePod OS 26.

Also available for old devices

According to Apple, there are two central innovations, whereby a third party has been added that the manufacturer does not do. They concern the use of Apple Music, the streaming protocol AirPlay and the WLAN control of the smart speakers. HomePod OS 26 is compatible with all existing HomePod devices, i.e. HomePod 1 (already published in 2018), HomePod 2 (from 2023) and HomePod Mini (from 2020, in summer 2024 equipped with a color change).

Apple Music customers will be able to use a new “overgiving” function in the future. Flowing transitions between two consecutive titles are to be created, according to Apple, “so that the music never ends”. However, this is not the more complex Automix function on the iPhone, where songs, beat matching and time stretching are analyzing. HomePods can reproduce Apple Music without having to be loaded by another device like an iPhone, but have a significantly lower computing power.

Security and WLAN

If you have several HomePods and use AirPlay, you can use Siri to transfer audio that runs on one of the loudspeakers to another. This must be in your own home (and be named as possible that you can find it). Finally, Apple also promises some “error deposits and improvements”, which the company does not explicitly communicate. Whether too Security gaps closed the manufacturer also does not indicate.

Another new HomePod OS function affects the WLAN settings. At the moment, these can only be configured very limited: Usually the HomePod takes over the network with which the configuration device (for example an iPhone) is connected. You only get a warning if this is later in another network (such as a guest network) and can then switch the HomePod to it. With HomePod OS 26, Apple now allows one Direct setting of the network, there is its own “Wi-Fi Network Selector” screen. For the first time, you have more control over the WLAN used.