HomePod HomePod audio automatically links to my phone

[Wizec]

I have 4 HomePods, 2 regular and 2 mini.

When anyone starts music on a HomePod, it automatically connects to my phone and shows what is playing.

I hate this. Is the there anyway I can get this to stop? I have disabled the handoff feature, and even gone so far as to sign out of Apple Music on the HomePod and sign into it with my daughter’s account.

This is a miserable experience as I will be listening to my own music on my AirPods Pro, then suddenly I look up at my phone and Apple Music has switched its display to what is playing on the HomePod across the house.

 

[dotme]

Currently there are settings to exclude people that are not members of the Home, but that's about it. In control center you can dismiss it by choosing "Control other Speakers and TVs" from the airplay menu but I'm not sure how sticky that setting is - It might revert back.

You could try creating a separate Home on your daughter's iPhone and add the HomePod to that instead, making sure that the setting is "Only members of this home" for sharing - That may do the trick, but then it would no longer be part of your Home of course.

 

[stocklen]

OP raises a very interesting point.

On the one hand, im sure Apple sets out to make things as 'useful' and simple as possible. For one, I have often found the display on the phone showing the HomePod content to be a benefit.

That said, I live alone and im the only one using the system so its neither here nor there.

I wasnt aware that the HomePod display would actively override something you were listening to at the same time via the iPhone - this clearly seems incorrect and rightly is annoying.

The whole experience is still remarkably ropey. For example my iPhone doesnt *always* show whats playing on the homepods.... or it does but takes 2-3 songs to finally appear (and i want it to!)

Take handoff as an example - im still bemused as to how it's supposed to work. It's always embarrassing when demonstrating the feature to friends as it just rarely does what I think it should do.... sometimes it works - sometimes it just doesnt. Im sure there are circumstances around what it should and shouldn't do but its a bit of a fail when my expectations are not met with the function.

 

[Arran]

Agree this feature is maddening. I can only guess it was designed by people who live alone?

My situation is three adults at home and a dozen airplay speakers. It’s caused stress and heated arguments because someone innocently changed someone else’s volume or music.

I hate it. There should be a way to turn it off.