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Spotify, the popular music streaming service, has yet to implement native support for Apple’s HomePod and HomePod mini despite the speakers being opened up to third-party streaming music services in 2020. This means that users cannot control Spotify with Siri on the HomePod.
According to Mark Gurman, Spotify has claimed that there hasn’t been a “significant volume” of complaints about the lack of HomePod support. However, a post on Spotify’s community website advocating for native HomePod support has received over 5,800 votes in favor of the idea since it was submitted in 2020, but Spotify has refused to budge despite Apple making the necessary APIs available.
This is not the first time that Spotify has been at odds with Apple. In 2019, Spotify accused Apple of anti-competitive behavior in a complaint filed in the EU. Alongside the complaint, Spotify launched a “Time to Play Fair” website that lists alleged examples of Apple’s unfair practices, including preventing Spotify from natively supporting the HomePod. Despite Apple making it possible for Spotify to support the HomePod, Spotify has yet to follow through.
Spotify has promised to update its iPhone and iPad app with AirPlay 2 support, but it has failed to deliver so far. AirPlay 2, which launched in 2018 with enhancements to the original AirPlay protocol, offers multi-room audio and improved buffering.
Spotify told Gurman that it “remains committed to supporting AirPlay 2 at some point in the future” and is “on a path towards making it happen eventually”, but the company was unable to provide a definitive timeframe. This is disappointing news for subscribers who have been waiting for Spotify to support AirPlay 2 since at least 2021.
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It’s unclear why Spotify has been slow to support these Apple features, but it may be related to the ongoing competition between the two companies. Spotify has been trying to gain a larger market share of the music streaming industry, while Apple has been trying to maintain its dominance. Until Spotify delivers on its promises, Apple users will have to continue using alternative methods to play Spotify on their HomePods.
