What is the HomePod Handoff feature and how to use it

It’s easy to move a song playing on your iPhone or iPod Touch to a HomePod in an instant. All you must do is enable the HomePod Handoff feature. The song or audio then starts playing from where you left off. The trick works amazingly well and we’ll show you how to get started!

How to enable the Apple HomePod Handoff feature?

To hand off an audio or enable the Apple HomePod Handoff feature, your iOS device must have Bluetooth turned on and should be on the same Wi-Fi network as HomePod.

1. Go to Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Switch to the General section.
3. Select the AirPlay & Handoff option.
4. Now Toggle On the switch next to Transfer to HomePod.
5. Enable the Handofffeature
6. Simply tap the iPhone to the speakers’ touchpad to play the song or audio.

Note – This built-in capability of HomePod is not just limited to Apple Music but also extends to third-party music services like Spotify. See how to handoff audio to HomePod.

If you have an iPhone, running iOS 13.2 or later go to the Settings.

Under the General section of Settings, Select AirPlay & Handoff section.

Toggle On the switch next to Transfer to HomePod. Also, enable the Handoff feature.

Now, when you’re playing a song on your iOS device like an iPhone, iPod Touch, etc, simply tap your device on your HomePod Touchpad to transfer the track. It also works the other way around.

When you’re done, you can disable the feature.

HomePod Handoff multiple users

In addition to yourself, you can enable Siri to recognize the voice of your family members so it can respond to their requests or allow them to personalize their HomePod experience. To set up multiuser, make sure you are added as a user in the Home app that was used to set up HomePod.

Then, tap Settings > your name > Find My > and turn on Share My Location.

Next, set My Location to This Device.

Proceed to enable Bluetooth, Siri, Personal Requests, Location Services, and "Hey Siri" on your device.

Upon completion of the above steps, you'll receive a notification in the Home app reading, HomePod Can Recognize Your Voice.

Thereafter, simply follow the onscreen instructions to complete setup.

HomePod Handoff not working?

If you have recently upgraded to iOS 14 and found the feature is not working, you may take one of the following courses of action.

1] Remove HomePod from the Home app

Go to the Home app of your iOS device that's signed in with the Apple ID used to set up HomePod.

Under it, find and press & hold HomePod.

Then, scroll down and tap or click Reset HomePod, then tap or click Remove Accessory.

2] Manually reset HomePod to factory settings

Some users report, even after multiple attempts, they cannot remove HomePod from the Home app. In such cases, you can manually reset it to factory settings.

That's all there is to it!

Source - Apple.