Apple did not say much about the HomePod at its Worldwide Developers Conference 2018, but it seems new features are coming in this fall. According to a new report, Apple has seeded 'HomePod OS 12' to some employees instead of releasing a developer or public beta. The latest HomePod OS 12 private beta update reportedly brings several features to the smart speaker that may roll out with the iOS 12 later this year. If the report turns out to be true HomePod users can make calls and answer them, ask Siri to Find My iPhone, and set multiple timers on the device.
As per a report in French site iGeneration, Apple has released HomePod OS 12.0 private beta and it may be released publicly alongside iOS 12 in the fall of 2018. The beta update reportedly brings phone call features that enable users to make and answer calls from the HomePod, a Find My iPhone Siri command, and support for multiple timers.
As of now, Apple HomePod users who wish to use the inbuilt speakerphone feature have to make or receive a call on their iPhone and then change the audio output to the HomePod when the call gets connected. Meanwhile, with the beta update, the HomePod appears to have access to the user's call logs that helps users initiate calls directly via the speaker. Currently, it is unclear if FaceTime Audio will be supported as well.
The HomePod OS 12 private beta comes with support for Find My iPhone so you can ask Siri to locate your iPhone and make it play a sound. The Home app now includes a 'fix Wi-Fi' button (exact translation unclear) that allows HomePod users to switch the speaker to another wireless network as long as a paired iPhone knows the password. Until now, it was necessary to reset the HomePod to do this. The private beta update reportedly also brings multiple timers to the Apple HomePod. Users can now run more than one timer simultaneously, which is basically running more than one timer at a time.
The last software update for the Apple HomePod had arrived with iOS 11.4, but it was limited to stability and quality improvements only. Notably, Apple has not officially reveal any of the reported features nor has it mentioned any timeline. While a few of these features may arrive this year, some of them may get delayed to future releases. We will know more about what is coming for HomePod over the next few months, ahead of the release of iOS 12, along with watchOS 5, tvOS 12, and macOS Mojave.
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