HomePod Naming Siri Shortcuts to play BBC Radio

[Nigel Goodman]

Since Siri cannot be asked to play any BBC Radio station on the HomePod directly (they are not on TuneIn) I've been experimenting with using iOS Shortcuts to do the same job. So I create a Shortcut on my iPhone to do this and running it from the iPhone works just fine.



The problem I'm having is giving the Shortcut a name that works.

You can see the name on the Shortcut above is "R4 Everywhere". But it will not work if I ask Siri on any of the Homepods to run it. I either get a random radio station or some extract from Wikipedia, or Siri says that it "Cannot find R4 Everywhere".

It also appears that if "Radio" is in the name of the Shortcut it will play any radio station it first thinks of.

Other words in the Shortcut that do odd things are: "Play"; "Four" (4); "Kitchen"; "Living Room"; and many others.

Can anyone suggest a form of words that will actually work?

 

[Feek]

I have one for Radio 2.

I've called it "Play are two in the office"

My logic - Are two = R2.

 

[Nigel Goodman]

I have one for Radio 2.

I've called it "Play are two in the office"

My logic - Are two = R2.

So I renamed mine as suggested to "Play Are Four in the Kitchen", and then Siri says:

"I did not find 4:30 am in Apple Music"

Must by my voice!

 

[Feek]

Must by my voice!

Oh, my apologies. I misread - I'm invoking Siri from the phone, not from the HomePod. It doesn't work for me on any of my HomePods either.

 

[Nigel Goodman]

Oh, my apologies. I misread - I'm invoking Siri from the phone, not from the HomePod. It doesn't work for me on any of my HomePods either.

Thanks.

I've given up with it really. Just created several shortcuts on the iPhone to direct the output to where I want it and others to play what I want. More steps to do, but at least I get what I want reliably.

Strange things is Siri on HomePod responds (mostly) correctly when asking for other stuff (basic info., smart home, other radio stations, etc.), just not for playing my (non-Apple) music or BBC radio.

 

[Calumma]

There are two types of shortcut: personal and home. Playing a station on the Sounds app is a personal shortcut and this will only work on the device where you create the shortcut. Home shortcuts (automations) can be activated from any device.

Perhaps in the future homepods may be updated to also run personal shortcuts using your voice to determine which iPhone to use for the BBC Sounds app, but they can’t do it yet.

There are quite a few instances where homepods fail to carry out a voice command that works on another device.

 

[sjtidy]

There are two types of shortcut: personal and home. Playing a station on the Sounds app is a personal shortcut and this will only work on the device where you create the shortcut. Home shortcuts (automations) can be activated from any device.

Perhaps in the future homepods may be updated to also run personal shortcuts using your voice to determine which iPhone to use for the BBC Sounds app, but they can’t do it yet.

There are quite a few instances where homepods fail to carry out a voice command that works on another device.

I'm not sure that's completely true. I've managed to make shortcuts on my iPhone to play a specific album or playlist (I don't use Apple Music). They do basically the same thing as this, set the AirPlay destination to a HomePod and play the album or playlist from my iPhone.

I can invoke them with my voice on the HomePod, or from my phone. They work probably 80% of the time, so it's not perfect, but it shows shortcuts can be run on HomePods.

 

[Calumma]

I'm not sure that's completely true. I've managed to make shortcuts on my iPhone to play a specific album or playlist (I don't use Apple Music). They do basically the same thing as this, set the AirPlay destination to a HomePod and play the album or playlist from my iPhone.

I can invoke them with my voice on the HomePod, or from my phone. They work probably 80% of the time, so it's not perfect, but it shows shortcuts can be run on HomePods.

The difference I think is that the Shortcut to play bbc relies on the bbc sounds app. My homepods will play music in my music library with a Siri command (although sometimes siri will claim not to be able to find something). I don’t think personal shortcuts that rely on a specific iOS app can be activated from a homepod. At least that has been my experience. But we are a multi iphone household with personal requests turned on for both myself and my wife. That may also make a difference.

 

[Psychopasta]

I've asked 'Hey Siri, play BBC Radio 2' and she responds 'Playing BBC Radio 1 from TuneIn'. Every request for a BBC station number results in Radio 1 being played. Is there an incantation that works?

 

[hideous cheese]

I’m using Broadcasts (five free stations although I have the paid version) and this works fine from my iPad

 

[Rich W100]

I have been struggling for this for a while also. I am pretty close to fully-in the apple ecostructure (homepod, iPhone, ipads, imac) and their attitude to working with other apps is getting to be a pain, The same can be said of the precious BBC. Both seem to forget that their tech is supposed to aid customers (not frustrate them). Maybe some people who can actually make a difference read these forums (but I doubt it).
Like the above, my solution was to ditch BBC sounds (bet apple are cheering at that) and use broadcast for the shortcut app with a second action of casting (deliberate use of the word to annoy apple) to my HomePod. naming it also was a pain but "turn the radio on" seems to work. "Turn radio on" (one word less) seems to provoke siri to play an apple station (I wonder why...). Conclusion? All in all that is pretty much "it" for me and the HomePod. Alexa and Google work fine out of the box for Radio 2 with a simple voice command: and TBH I have better things to do than struggle with a lousy apple implementation of a simple solution on the other major 2 players. Ultimately I suspect no one will take any notice unless/until enough people get brassed off enough to make them listen by voting with their wallets.

 

[JonLa]

I haven't tried it since the ios15 arrival but my old shortcut using the Sounds app "Play BBC Six Music" worked fine, most of the time.

 

[timsutcliffe]

Right, I've got this sorted using the BBC Sounds app and Shortcuts.

I have to say 'Play BBC Radio 2' to make it work. 'Play Radio 2' wasn't good enough. I also have it sorted for 5 Live as well. This is for the HomePod.

I had to have the stations listened to in the sounds app for them to show up in the Shortcuts app, but once I had it was very straightforward. Not that it should need to be sorted in this convoluted way at all.

.

 

[madeirabhoy]

i am really confused. i live in portugal, and got my first homepod mini yesterday. From this thread and other comment i assumed i would have problems.

however, so far, if i say 'hey siri play bbc radio 1' (or 2) it says 'playing bbc radio 1 from tunein' and plays it fine.

 

[timsutcliffe]

i am really confused. i live in portugal, and got my first homepod mini yesterday. From this thread and other comment i assumed i would have problems.

however, so far, if i say 'hey siri play bbc radio 1' (or 2) it says 'playing bbc radio 1 from tunein' and plays it fine.

That is strange. I wonder if it is something to do with the rights for streaming it not being owned by tunein in the UK?

Nice for you though!

 

[madeirabhoy]

That is strange. I wonder if it is something to do with the rights for streaming it not being owned by tunein in the UK?

Nice for you though!

it might be. now if only i could get it to play Radio Clyde.

Also is it right that you can't get a homepod to stream a radio channel as an alarm clock? glad ive kept my google for that.

 

[Zonck]

How on earth do you have BBC Sounds in the shortcut app? I don’t even have it as an option to add in a shortcut.

 

[timsutcliffe]

How on earth do you have BBC Sounds in the shortcut app? I don’t even have it as an option to add in a shortcut.

Hmm, nor me at the minute. Can you edit it from this link?

Play BBC Radio 2

 

[Zonck]

Hmm, nor me at the minute. Can you edit it from this link?

Play BBC Radio 2

Yes, that works for me, just seems I don’t have the option to add/create shortcuts from the app myself. How odd.

Thank you so much though, hopefully I can do something with this!

 

[dinojr]

Right, I've got this sorted using the BBC Sounds app and Shortcuts.

I have to say 'Play BBC Radio 2' to make it work. 'Play Radio 2' wasn't good enough. I also have it sorted for 5 Live as well. This is for the HomePod.

I had to have the stations listened to in the sounds app for them to show up in the Shortcuts app, but once I had it was very straightforward. Not that it should need to be sorted in this convoluted way at all.

.View attachment 1932364

Hi, I tried setting a shortcut as per this video, but think he's using an older iOS version of the shortcut app:

I have the same option as you... Where is "set destination for audio" option he uses in the video? Is it buried in the "Choose from menu" option we have?

 

[palemonkey]

Hi, I tried setting a shortcut as per this video, but think he's using an older iOS version of the shortcut app:

I have the same option as you... Where is "set destination for audio" option he uses in the video? Is it buried in the "Choose from menu" option we have?

Press the X down the bottom and then you can search for "Set destination"

 

[BowdusBrown]

Hmm, nor me at the minute. Can you edit it from this link?

Play BBC Radio 2

Hi,

Since tapping that link I can now search for the App ‘BBC Sounds’ in the actions menu. However it lists only this single action that you provided via this link ‘Play Radio 2’ (which works)

How did you acquire that action? Where can I find other BBC Sounds actions?

Thanks

 

[madeirabhoy]

Hi,

Since tapping that link I can now search for the App ‘BBC Sounds’ in the actions menu. However it lists only this single action that you provided via this link ‘Play Radio 2’ (which works)

How did you acquire that action? Where can I find other BBC Sounds actions?

Thanks

would be great to have a radio 1 and radio Scotland version but I can’t see how to edit it.

 

[timsutcliffe]

would be great to have a radio 1 and radio Scotland version but I can’t see how to edit it.

It turns out that Shortcuts is a very tricky to understand.

I think this works for Radio 1, if you really want to damage your ears!

Play BBC Radio 1

 

[timsutcliffe]

Hi,

Since tapping that link I can now search for the App ‘BBC Sounds’ in the actions menu. However it lists only this single action that you provided via this link ‘Play Radio 2’ (which works)

How did you acquire that action? Where can I find other BBC Sounds actions?

Thanks

I had to open the Sounds app for it to show up in any sort of search menu in the Shortcuts app. After that, I’m not really sure what I did I’m afraid.