A couple of weeks back, Apple announced that their HomePod speakers won’t ship with some key features like the multi-room audio support, etc. Ever since then, people have been speculating as to how Apple will push the software updates to add these features and more in the future.
According to code within iOS 11.2.5, it looks like the software updates for HomePod will be installed via the Home app. It is similar to how the updates are handled on the Apple watch. In case you don’t know, Apple Watch updates are installed via the Watch app on iOS.
Considering the fact that HomePod runs a version of iOS, this doesn’t come as a surprise. Since the HomePod is actually a lot like an iPhone without a display, we can expect the updates just about the same time when the iOS devices are being updated. However, this could mean that iOS users would be required to be on the latest version of iOS to enjoy all the new features of the HomePod. For instance, HomePod version 11.3 can’t be installed, if your iPhone is still on iOS 11.2.5 and so on.
Once the HomePod is updated with a new feature, the company could show a special alert via the home app to notify users of the feature. As you can see from the screenshot, there’s an option to automatically update the HomePod as well.
It also looks like Apple has hardcoded iOS 11.3 with support for stereo pairing. This pretty much confirms that the device will ship with that particular feature out of the box. Now we just have to wait and see when the other features like multi-room support will be pushed.
In case you are out of the loop, Apple’s HomePod will be available starting 9th February in the US, UK, and Australia. As of now, there’s no ETA on the speaker’s availability in other regions, but hopefully, it’ll arrive sometime in 2018 itself.
