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danny842003

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 6, 2017
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Is there anyway I can set up my Apple TV to use voice commands from my homepod? It would be great if when I’m heading out of the house I could just say hey Siri turn off the TV or if my phone rings if I could say hey Siri pause the TV prior to answering.
 
I really want to know this too. I have been able to get it to work by saying "Hey Siri, pause the living room Apple TV" but that's way more complicated than necessary. It does allow you to control it the way you would expect if you airplay the Apple TV to it, but obviously this is no good if you have a home theatre. This is the one thing I want before I purchase one for my living room.
 
The logitech harmony hub adds this functionality of controlling the TV via voice, to the Amazon echoes and Alexa, but the harmony hub doesn't work with the HomePod.

I don't think the HomePod can turn off the apple tv and tv, just pause it as Jamie0003 noted above unless your TV specifically works with Apple's Homekit.
 
The logitech harmony hub adds this functionality of controlling the TV via voice, to the Amazon echoes and Alexa, but the harmony hub doesn't work with the HomePod.

I don't think the HomePod can turn off the apple tv and tv, just pause it as Jamie0003 noted above unless your TV specifically works with Apple's Homekit.
It can't turn the TV on and off, but just being able to pause and play content is all I really want to use it for, but it can't currently do that. It should be smart enough to know that if the Apple TV is in the same room and you tell it to pause or play, it'll do so without question, like it does with lights in the same room.
 
It should be able to do this, mine works. Depending on what room your Apple TV is set to be in. I think this is where it's set, under Settings app on the Apple TV.

Menu selections on the Apple TV are Settings>AirPlay>Room

Then just say Hey Siri, pause the "room name" room Apple TV, such as Hey Siri, pause the living room Apple TV.
 
It should be able to do this, mine works. Depending on what room your Apple TV is set to be in. I think this is where it's set, under Settings app on the Apple TV.

Menu selections on the Apple TV are Settings>AirPlay>Room

Then just say Hey Siri, pause the "room name" room Apple TV, such as Hey Siri, pause the living room Apple TV.
Yeah, this does work, but I want to be able to just say "Hey Siri, Pause" or "Hey Siri, Pause the Apple TV" and for it to know what I'm asking. It should be smart enough to do this, as if you have a hue light in the same room as the HomePod and say lights out, or on, it will automatically only change the lights in that room, if you see what I mean, so it doesn't make much sense that it doesn't work with the Apple TV in this way.
 
I know what you mean. You can also just say "Hey Siri, pause the living room" I just tried it and it stopped netflix playing for me.
 
We don't know what HomePods with iOS 12 will be able to do. I'm still hoping they'll be able to do stuff like that. Would love to turn off the Apple TV among other things. Like using the Apple TV for automations. For example: when the Apple TV is playing video, dim the lights.
 
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We don't know what HomePods with iOS 12 will be able to do. I'm still hoping they'll be able to do stuff like that. Would love to turn off the Apple TV among other things. Like using the Apple TV for automations. For example: when the Apple TV is playing video, dim the lights.
That would be awesome, and being able to have it turn on automatically to the home screen when I get home from work would be nice.
 
I really want to know this too. I have been able to get it to work by saying "Hey Siri, pause the living room Apple TV" but that's way more complicated than necessary. It does allow you to control it the way you would expect if you airplay the Apple TV to it, but obviously this is no good if you have a home theatre. This is the one thing I want before I purchase one for my living room.

It wouldn’t need to be that difficult for instance if I have an Apple TV and HomePod in one room a simple pause/turn on tv should be enough.
It’s unliekly I would be asking to turn on a tv in a different room.
 
It wouldn’t need to be that difficult for instance if I have an Apple TV and HomePod in one room a simple pause/turn on tv should be enough.
It’s unliekly I would be asking to turn on a tv in a different room.

Why would that be unlikely? Its the point of AirPlay 2, multiple device playback. I think that limits AirPlay 2 and shifts the focus of the HomePod away from music.

The issue is that its just buggy still (for me anyway).

"Hey Siri play my chill playlist in the basement and living room"
"Hey Siri play my electronic playlist in the master bedroom"
"Hey Siri play my radio station everywhere"
"Hey Siri increase the volume in the living room"
"Hey Siri decrease the volume in the office and guest bedroom"
"Hey Siri pause the music in the office" (not the guest bedroom)

These all should work however if I include the HomePod on any command it wont play anywhere else except the HomePod which is frustrating. So if I say... "Hey Siri play STS9 in the basement, guest bedroom and living room" it plays the artist STS9 on all of them, all in sync. However if I say "Play STS9 everywhere" which includes the HomePod obviously it just plays at the HomePod even though it confirms the command of playing "Playing STS9 everywhere".

Work around is to start music on the HomePod "Hey Siri play STS9" and then say "Hey Siri play this in the basement, guest bedroom and living room". This will also cause "Hey Siri pause" to pause all devices, you'll need to be specific if you just want to stop the music in a particular room/area.

And once other devices get AirPlay 2 functionality we'll be using commands like, "Hey Siri play my relax playlist on Sonos in the basement" (avoiding the AppleTV in the same room or the Sonos devices in the living room).

Another issue is trying to play different songs in different parts of the house via the HomePod. So if I walk by the HomePod and say "Hey Siri play my electronic station in the basement" and later my g/f walks by and says "Hey Siri play (whatever) in the master bedroom" it will stop the basement music entirely and play her request in the master bedroom.

Point is, there is a very high probability that someone will want to control a specific device that isn't the device nearest my HomePod. This is no different than other devices in the Home app. I can't expect Siri to guess I'm talking about the office lights if I say "Hey Siri turn on the lights".
 
I can pause and play my Apple TV using the Homepod.

It work's fine, though takes a second as it says "pausing in the living" then pauses.
 
I use my Harmony Hub, via Homebridge, with HomeKit.
This lets me bark commands to the HomePod and control all of my A/V equipment.
One odd thing I had with it though is it wouldn’t work with my Apple TV called Apple TV. So I renamed it to Streamer and bobs your uncle.
 
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