Features: A kind of magic
With Siri onboard, the HomePod Mini can do all the usual smart speaker stuff – set timers, check the weather forecast, add events to your calendar – but it also works as a HomeKit Hub to give you control over products from the likes of Philips Hue, Nanoleaf, Lifx, Netatmo, Eve, Tado, and Belkin.
It’s simple to set up new gear but you don’t get quite as much choice compared to Alexa or Google Home, although that might not be the case for much longer. Apple has made the HomePod Mini compatible with Thread – a relatively new smart home standard developed in conjunction with Amazon, Google and the Zigbee Alliance, with Ikea, Samsung and others onboard too. While it doesn’t mean much right now, it’s a step in the right direction for a more open smart home landscape in the future.
In the meantime, the HomePod Mini does have a couple of cool new features that set it apart from the competition. Ask Siri for anything image-based and the results from Bing will pop up on your phone’s screen instead. It’s a neat trick, although one that seems to have limited real-world use, and while it works pretty flawlessly, the on-screen execution lacks a little of the usual Apple finesse.
Even better is the ability to transfer songs between your phone and the HomePod Mini just by holding them close together, so you don’t have to miss a beat when you leave the house for your morning jog. You’ll need an iPhone 11 or newer for this to work as it uses the U1 chip inside, but it feels a bit like magic every time you do it. That may well wear off over time, but it’s a decent substitute for the kind of flexibility of playback offered by Spotify Connect that would otherwise be absent.
Apple has also added an Intercom function, which allows you to send short voice messages to other Apple devices inside and outside your home, although it only seems to work on HomePods at the moment. It could potentially come in handy if you’re a family of Apple fans, although it’s got a tough job if it thinks it can usurp the trusty WhatsApp group.
