Our use-case is this - wife wants to use Homepods to make calls from her phone, but wants husband, in case of medical emergency, to be able to make calls via HIS phone when wife is not home. From what I can tell, making calls from the homepod requires a connection to one phone, and if THAT phone is not in the house, phone calls cannot be made at all, even if another member of the house, with phone, is home and on the wifi. Is that correct, or am I missing something? Thanks!
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HomePod Homepod to connect to TWO phones for making calls?
- Thread starter cameronjpu
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Curious, where do you get this info?
I’m pretty sure (like 95% sure) that’s incorrect since the HomePod was given multi user support. I haven’t tested this scenario with phone calls but me being the primary account on all our HomePods, I know my wife can make personal requests to the HomePod without me being around, like adding items to a reminders list and such. Maybe with Wi-Fi calling turned off this won’t work. Hmm. I’ll try to give this a test run when the wife gets home.
Yes, it can be done. Invite users to the home in the Home app, and set up voice recognition.
support.apple.com
Set up voice recognition on HomePod or HomePod mini - Apple Support
Siri on HomePod and HomePod mini can recognize multiple voices, so everyone in your home can enjoy personalized music and media. And you can do even more when you enable Personal Requests, like send messages and make phone calls.
I got the info by trying it - removed wife phone from house (put it in airplane mode, turned off wifi and BT) and requested to make a call. System couldn't connect to a phone to make a call. Personal requests work, but phone calls, no.
Already did those things, and it recognizes both users. But phone calls don't work from the second user. The HomePod can't find a phone to make a call from. It's an iPhone 8, could that be the problem?Yes, it can be done. Invite users to the home in the Home app, and set up voice recognition.
Set up voice recognition on HomePod or HomePod mini - Apple Support
Siri on HomePod and HomePod mini can recognize multiple voices, so everyone in your home can enjoy personalized music and media. And you can do even more when you enable Personal Requests, like send messages and make phone calls.
Ok
Interestingly, the first two attempts on one of the OG HomePods gave a response of “oh oh, something went wrong.” I had her try again on a different OG HomePod and the call did go through.
It doesn’t make sense that it shouldn’t work though. Since this would be considered a personal request and my phone needing to be home and on the same network would mean that my phone would be making the call out. My phone doesn’t have my wife’s contacts tho.
Was Siri giving you an error message or did the call just fail?
Ok so I just tested this by putting my phone in Airplane mode and asked my wife to make a call using Siri on the HomePod.
Interestingly, the first two attempts on one of the OG HomePods gave a response of “oh oh, something went wrong.” I had her try again on a different OG HomePod and the call did go through.
It doesn’t make sense that it shouldn’t work though. Since this would be considered a personal request and my phone needing to be home and on the same network would mean that my phone would be making the call out. My phone doesn’t have my wife’s contacts tho.
Was Siri giving you an error message or did the call just fail?
I was getting that same error, just that something went wrong. Your phone in Airplane mode, was the wifi also off, to really simulate not being there?
Yeah, airplane mode turns off Wi-Fi, which I confirmed and the HomePods only use Bluetooth for setup.
I don't think the iPhone 8 should be a problem as long as it's running a fairly recent iOS version. Is this phone able to at least handoff a phone call to the HomePod? If not, that might be the first step to solve before trying to make a call from the HomePod directly.
After reading some more, it seems that there are some additional requirements to check:
- On the phone: Bluetooth must be turned on, and Wi-Fi on same network as the HomePod.
- On the phone: 'Transfer to HomePod' must be enabled in 'AirPlay & Handoff' settings.
- In Home Settings in the Home app, perhaps try a different setting for 'Allow Speaker & TV Access'. (Options are: Everyone, Anyone On the Same Network, or Only People Sharing This Home.)
Use HomePod for phone calls
Use HomePod as a speaker phone to make and answer calls.
support.apple.com
It only turns off wifi if you tell it to. If you tell it not to (by turning on wifi after turning on Airplane mode) then in the future, turning on airplane mode will not turn off wifi. Nifty huh
Yeah these requirements might be the problem. I'll have to check them if I revisit the couple. The iPhone 8 was on iOS 16. I couldnt believe that was possible, actually.
So a grayed out Wi-Fi icon in control center with a diagonal line going through it means Wi-Fi is still active? I mean, this is what I saw when I verified it was off. If not then that’s extremely confusing lol.It only turns off wifi if you tell it to. If you tell it not to (by turning on wifi after turning on Airplane mode) then in the future, turning on airplane mode will not turn off wifi. Nifty huh
Your Wi-Fi is off in your screenshot. What he's saying is that it's possible for Wi-Fi to remain on even if Airplane mode is on.
For example, in your screenshot, if you were to tap the Wi-Fi button to turn it on, then turn Airplane mode off...your Wi-Fi wouldn't go off the next time you go into Airplane mode. The same applies to Bluetooth. Notice how your Bluetooth is still on even though you're in Airplane mode.
But, wait...there's more! Bluetooth is even more confusing. If you want to turn Bluetooth off completely, then you have to do it through Settings. Tapping the Bluetooth button in the Control Center only just disconnects Bluetooth devices. Notice the difference between it being partially grayed out (Bluetooth on, devices disconnected), and completely grayed out with a line through it (Bluetooth off).
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This is getting out of hand so I won’t argue it further lol. Regardless, my point here is that Wi-Fi was indeed off for me and I confirmed it was off before testing the feature he’s asking about. I screenshot exactly what I saw at the time.