HomePod HomePod Mini, AirPlay 2 & other audio

[bumbo]

Quick question... if I send audio to a HomePod Mini via AirPlay, can I still have audio from another app on my phone playing (like a YT video or Instagram post)?

 

[dotme]

I believe so. I've sent AirPlay audio to my HomePods and still been able to use the same source (iPhone) to watch video clips and make calls etc, the audio for those activities remaining local to the device.

 

[waw74]

If you're truly using airplay, then no, you can't

there are 2 ways you can play music on the HomePod, and they look remarkably similar on the phone
You can play it on the HomePod and the music app and controls on the phone are just a remote control for that player, OR play it on the phone and then send it to the HomePod via airplay.

Because of the way apple has it set up, they look and act almost exactly the same, but one will say "iPhone -> HomePod" and the other just says "HomePod" (it will probably have the room the HomePod is in, vs the actual word)

The first way, you can still continue to play music/video on the phone
the second you can't.

The first way currently only works with Apple Music, (supposedly coming soon to others, although I think pandora is already working, Spotify defintly does not)
the second way works with anything that will make audio on the phone.

 

[dubvulture]

If you're truly using airplay, then no, you can't

there are 2 ways you can play music on the HomePod, and they look remarkably similar on the phone
You can play it on the HomePod and the music app and controls on the phone are just a remote control for that player, OR play it on the phone and then send it to the HomePod via airplay.

Because of the way apple has it set up, they look and act almost exactly the same, but one will say "iPhone -> HomePod" and the other just says "HomePod" (it will probably have the room the HomePod is in, vs the actual word)

The first way, you can still continue to play music/video on the phone
the second you can't.

The first way currently only works with Apple Music, (supposedly coming soon to others, although I think pandora is already working, Spotify defintly does not)
the second way works with anything that will make audio on the phone.

The first way also works with iTunes Match (iCloud Music Library). Even without an Apple Music subscription.

 

[pup]

I can airplay from iTunes to Sonos speakers from my iPhone and also play a YouTube video. No reason why it wouldn’t work the same with a HomePod.

 

[waw74]

I can airplay from iTunes to Sonos speakers from my iPhone and also play a YouTube video. No reason why it wouldn’t work the same with a HomePod.

Hmmm interesting, I just tried this.
they seem to have made some improvement, but it doesn't seem to work the same in all apps.


had music app playing on phone, and air playing to sonos speakers.
I also tried using Spotify and it worked the same way.

When playing a video on YouTube, music continued on sonos, and the YouTube audio came out the phones speakers.
Tried Spotify, Netflix, Prime and Plex. All of them stoped the music and played their audio though sonos.

I tried starting a YouTube video with no music playing in another app, and the Youtube audio came out of sonos.

I tried my security cam software, and a few web videos from different sites in safari, those worked like YouTube.



So the answer to the original question is a definite maybe.