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HomePod Intercom away from home over cellular?

Cheesehead Dave

Cheesehead Dave

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 14, 2020
144
441
On my way home from work today, I attempted to send an intercom message home, but I kept getting “Intercom not delivered” errors both over CarPlay and using my phone directly.

When I got home and was on wifi, I had no trouble sending one from my phone, but if I turned WiFi off on my phone so I was using cellular again, I got the same "not delivered" error. I tried it using my wife's phone and it doesn't work for her, either.

I'm able to see my Home status when I'm on cellular, so my hub (which is currently my kitchen HomePod) seems to be working properly.

Is there some configuration I have wrong, or is this only for at home use? The promo videos show the dad telling his kids from his car that “pizza’s coming” so it should work, but it doesn’t.
 
Cheesehead Dave said:
On my way home from work today, I attempted to send an intercom message home, but I kept getting “Intercom not delivered” errors both over CarPlay and using my phone directly.

When I got home and was on wifi, I had no trouble sending one from my phone, but if I turned WiFi off on my phone so I was using cellular again, I got the same "not delivered" error. I tried it using my wife's phone and it doesn't work for her, either.

I'm able to see my Home status when I'm on cellular, so my hub (which is currently my kitchen HomePod) seems to be working properly.

Is there some configuration I have wrong, or is this only for at home use? The promo videos show the dad telling his kids from his car that “pizza’s coming” so it should work, but it doesn’t.
Click to expand...

In the home app, homepod go into settings and under intercom do you have anywhere set?
 
Renho said:
All devices have to be on iOS 14.2, even the homepod
Click to expand...
They are. It works when we’re on WiFi. When my wife tries it on her phone, we hear it on the HomePod plus I get the intercom notification on my phone and my watch, so everything is fully up-to-date.
 
It works for me when I turn off wifi.
does your wife's phone work on cellular?

have you tried rebooting your phone?
You could also try rebooting the HomePod, and your router? (these are in the might not help, but shouldn't hurt column)

Try disabling and re-enabling yourself in the intercom section of the home app.
 
waw74 said:
It works for me when I turn off wifi.
does your wife's phone work on cellular?

have you tried rebooting your phone?
You could also try rebooting the HomePod, and your router? (these are in the might not help, but shouldn't hurt column)

Try disabling and re-enabling yourself in the intercom section of the home app.
Click to expand...
Yeah, unfortunately I’ve gone through every combination of rebooting and disabling/enabling phones and the HomePod and it didn’t make any difference.

The next step would probably be resetting everything to factory settings and starting over, but I’m not sure I care that much about this feature to spend the time doing that.
 
Cheesehead Dave said:
Yeah, unfortunately I’ve gone through every combination of rebooting and disabling/enabling phones and the HomePod and it didn’t make any difference.

The next step would probably be resetting everything to factory settings and starting over, but I’m not sure I care that much about this feature to spend the time doing that.
Click to expand...

I would take the HomePod out of home and back. Reset it and try that first maybe! It is software related so.

BtW- during the commercial the dad was in his car when he sent the intercom message about pizza but he was in their garage where he could have still be in home wifi range. Lol I was thinking that after it first dropped.
 
Renho said:
I would take the HomePod out of home and back. Reset it and try that first maybe! It is software related so.

BtW- during the commercial the dad was in his car when he sent the intercom message about pizza but he was in their garage where he could have still be in home wifi range. Lol I was thinking that after it first dropped.
Click to expand...
That would be really savage of them to advertise that way when 95% of the time you’re on CarPlay, you’re also on cellular lol.
 
Itinj24 said:
That would be really savage of them to advertise that way when 95% of the time you’re on CarPlay, you’re also on cellular lol.
Click to expand...
Right, they are like well ya he was in the car but actually....... he was still on home wifi..🤣
 
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I guess that’s actually the first question I should be asking... Is this just me, or is it the same for everybody: You can only send Intercom messages when you’re at home, but you can receive them anywhere? (Assuming you have Always Allow set)
 
Cheesehead Dave said:
I guess that’s actually the first question I should be asking... Is this just me, or is it the same for everybody: You can only send Intercom messages when you’re at home, but you can receive them anywhere? (Assuming you have Always Allow set)
Click to expand...
Another thread they are saying it is working for them.
 
Yea we are all on iOS 14.2. My iPad only has the option of never as well. I used my iPhone from work and it did announce on the homepods at home. That works. I just can’t get them on my iPhone and my wife’s iPhone is the same way
 
Something’s definitely not right. I just thought of trying the “Give me my update” and the only response I would get is “Okay, but you’ll have to continue on your phone”.

Edit: Nevermind... I found the new setting to allow Siri to read personal information without authorization from the phone.
 
Last edited:
I tried disabling WiFi, and while it worked fine over cellular it took 3x the time. Did you check if Settings > Cellular > Home is enabled? Also Settings > iCloud > Home.
 
Cheesehead Dave said:
Something’s definitely not right. I just thought of trying the “Give me my update” and the only response I would get is “Okay, but you’ll have to continue on your phone”.

Edit: Nevermind... I found the new setting to allow Siri to read personal information without authorization from the phone.
Click to expand...
So it works? Where is that and how do we find it?
 
Renho said:
So it works? Where is that and how do we find it?
Click to expand...
HomePod settings > Personal Requests > Require Authentication > Never

This was just for “What’s my update”. Has no effect on Intercom not working.
 
diego.caraballo said:
I tried disabling WiFi, and while it worked fine over cellular it took 3x the time. Did you check if Settings > Cellular > Home is enabled? Also Settings > iCloud > Home.
Click to expand...
That's the solution! In settings-cellular switch of home and put it back on again. After that it worked fine over cellular for me.
 
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LMMAACC said:
The only option I have on my iPhone in home app is NEVER. but on my wife’s iPad she has the option of never ,anywhere. Why does my phone not have that. Is it a software bug? We are all on ios14
Click to expand...
I had this issue on my wife's iPhone and iPad. On everyone else's iPhones or iPads the intercom settings allowed me to set it to Never, When I'm Home, or Anywhere. My wife's devices were stuck on Never and wouldn't let me change it. I finally thought to go in and check location services and it was set to Never for the Home app. I set locations services to While Using The App for the Home app, went back into the intercom settings, and then I was able to change those settings. I'm betting you have the same issue.
 
Beerstalker said:
I had this issue on my wife's iPhone and iPad. On everyone else's iPhones or iPads the intercom settings allowed me to set it to Never, When I'm Home, or Anywhere. My wife's devices were stuck on Never and wouldn't let me change it. I finally thought to go in and check location services and it was set to Never for the Home app. I set locations services to While Using The App for the Home app, went back into the intercom settings, and then I was able to change those settings. I'm betting you have the same issue.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much. That was the issue with me.
 
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