Apple's testing HomePod's ability to support Spotify and other third-party music services

Apple is testing HomePod's ability to support Spotify and other third-party music services. The software is being tested by a group of HomePod testers alongside iOS 14 Developer Beta 2. It looks like third-party developers will have to work on support as the images we've seen don't name any other services. 

As such we're unclear which services will be supported, but we'd expect support for Amazon, Spotify, Tidal and Deezer as a minimum.

We've known for a couple of weeks that Apple was planning to include the support in a future version of the HomePod software thanks to a press release.

The news was first mentioned in a paragraph under the heading 'Greater access to Apple platforms' says simply "HomePod also has a new program to integrate third-party music services".

Siri should also work with at the services on the HomePod - it has supported third-party music services on iOS and iPadOS since iOS 13. 

Apple seems keen to open up its platforms to more services - in a controlled manner of course - but it's tempting to say that it's having to in order to head off investigations by the European Union and others into its competitive behaviour.

Remember that Spotify even has a whole site. dedicated to its grudges with Apple. iOS 14 also enables you to choose different default apps for email and browsing on your iPhone and iPad, too. 

We are expecting a second generation of the HomePod to debut in late 2020 or early 2021 but in the meantime, there's a killer discount on the existing model - it's now price competitive with Sonos One and the Amazon Echo Studio. 

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