HomePod 14.4 brings separate Siri volume control

[yoavcs]

Finally.

In 14.4 you can tell Siri to set the Media volume to a certain level and to set Voice (speaking) volume to a different level.

You can at last have loud music and soft Siri responses.

Finally.

 

[s2mike]

Finally.

In 14.4 you can tell Siri to set the Media volume to a certain level and to set Voice (speaking) volume to a different level.

You can at last have loud music and soft Siri responses.

Finally.

How exactly do you do this?

I’ve noticed that Siri’s voice is much louder on my HomePod mini after the update.

 

[StumpyBloke]

“Hey Siri set media volume to n percent”

“Hey Siri set voice volume to n percent”

That’s how I do it on mine anyway.

I don’t know if it’s new to 14.4 though, because pre-14.4 occasionally when I’ve asked to turn the volume down it seems to be almost random that it will say okay turning media volume down to...

 

[yoavcs]

Siri started saying "media volume" in 14.3, but it never actually did anything.

Now in 14.4 it works. Still not perfectly, but there's a genuine ability to have separate music/Siri volumes.

 

[Itinj24]

I asked Siri to set voice volume to 10% and she said, “Ok, I’ll speak softer” which she did. Then I asked Siri to set media volume to 75% but her voice volume also went up to 75% in her reply to that. Not sure it’s working properly unless media has to be playing for this to work, which I haven’t tried. She does understand the difference in her replies though.

 

[Sanlitun]

It still doesn't work. Siri will not retain the voice volume setting.

 

[yoavcs]

Try using "set Music volume to..." and "set Voice volume to..."
It's still flaky, but it works.

 

[Itinj24]

Try using "set Music volume to..." and "set Voice volume to..."
It's still flaky, but it works.

When you say flaky, do you mean try it a few times? I gave up after three attempts. Or do you mean it will work but only sometimes? I’m willing to be labeled insane if I can get assurance that this works for some lol.

 

[yoavcs]

I meant sometimes it’ll retain the different voice and music volumes, other times the voice volume changes but is reset to the media volume once you start playing music. I’ve yet to work out a rhyme or reason.

 

[StumpyBloke]

I meant sometimes it’ll retain the different voice and music volumes, other times the voice volume changes but is reset to the media volume once you start playing music. I’ve yet to work out a rhyme or reason.

Same here. Completely unreliable, but pretty much like all Apple software at the moment unfortunately.

 

[Feek]

I'm finding the opposite with this, it's working really well. I noticed a few weeks ago that when setting the volume, Siri would say 'media' so I randomly tried 'media' and 'voice' and it's been great.

 

[subjonas]

I’m finding that setting “media” volume works well, but setting “voice” volume only works the one time then she goes straight back to her previous speaking volume. I kept trying to change her volume for awhile. She wouldn’t budge from 26% for several minutes, then she randomly went to 27%, then 29%, then back to 27%. It didn’t matter what media volume was set at, and whether or not media was playing. So currently there is no way to change her voice volume. This is a problem.
Restart did not fix it.
Running 14.4.

 

[TyrionV]

Good find OP, works perfectly for me.

”set music volume to 10”

”set your voice volume to 50”

Siri responds “I’ll speak up” and the music stays at 10.

When I then said “set your voice volume to 20” he responds “I’ll dial it down!” Neat.

If I ask the time or anything else Siri‘s volume stays at what I’ve asked with the music a constant 10.

Brilliant.

 

[macdragonfl]

It seems so far to work very well. It was annoying that Siri was so low.

 

[Sanlitun]

I can do "set voice volume to 10%" and then immediately after ask what time it is and the volume reverts to an automatic setting. This is with OG HomePod.

Is it working on the Mini?

 

[subjonas]

I think I figured out the pattern. Siri voice volume will always adjust itself to what it thinks makes sense relative to the media volume (whether any audio is playing or not). So if media volume is at 0, voice will be 18. At media volume 20, voice will be 35. At media volume 50, voice will be 48.

Supposedly with the new update each volume is now independently controlled, but as we can see here it’s not really working for all of us, as it keeps reverting.

edit- note the above numbers are for the regular HomePod. It’s a different set of percentages for the mini, with the voice needing to be louder due to the mini’s smaller size.

 

[subjonas]

I can do "set voice volume to 10%" and then immediately after ask what time it is and the volume reverts to an automatic setting. This is with OG HomePod.

Is it working on the Mini?

It does not work on my mini, nor my 3 regular homepods (all on 14.4).