What Remains of HomePod (1st Gen)

by Rian

Apple pulled the plug on 1st gen HomePod, otherwise affectionally called OG HomePod. I think users were already aware of what will become of OG. As the saying goes, in the long run, everything becomes a “vintage”, but HomePod’s case was different as the latest model featured less number of tweeters and powered by a chip used in Apple Watch series. Apple created a product line that focuses on audio but somehow decided to downgrade the hardware than before.

HomePod was less a product but a terminal to Apple Music. Without other devices to take control, Siri was the only way to do anything. And vanilla Siri, without iOS shortcuts, is falling significantly behind in 2024 standards, let alone in 2018 when HomePod was first released. With rumors and following the announcement of Apple Intelligence, there were predictions Apple might focus on audio-based UI again —we are yet to find out.

As an Apple Music device, Siri fundamentally lacks multilingual support. I believe it was never designed to support multiple languages simultaneously. If your HomePod Siri speaks American English, it will only find American English pop songs properly, maybe some British English. In my case, whenever I try to find a classical in German or K-Pop, Siri comes back with the most absurd answers possible.

Had Siri been able to handle complex queries, such as ‘switch the music search to German temporarily’ then find anything in the language set, HomePods would have some legs to stand on. Siri, in its current form, requires piggyback from iOS Shortcuts to be useful. What Shortcuts is capable of is beyond simple AI piggyback, but it doesn’t stop users from implementing the basics to make Siri more useful.

Now that HomePod has become “vintage” by Apple’s standards, I’m confident in saying HomePod did not live up to its promises —albeit as a simple AirPlay speaker, it was better than most I tried. As a HomeKit device, however, removing HomePod could not wreck more havoc than I imagined; OG HomePod still plays pivotal role in maintaining the mesh of IoT devices, so don’t make the same mistake as I did. The OG HomePod will be missed when the time comes, but until then, I’m not letting Siri near Apple Music.