The best ‘hidden’ function of Apple, Google and Amazon’s smart speakers

Apple claims that the new £99 mini version of its HomePod digital assistant, which goes on sale next week, contains within its 3.3-inches “everything customers want in a smart speaker”.
Apple's new HomePod connects your phone just by hovering over it.Apple's new HomePod connects your phone just by hovering over it.
Apple's new HomePod connects your phone just by hovering over it.

To wit, it has the same voice control features as the full-size HomePod, and a new intercom system which lets you send voice messages around the house from one pod to another, or to any available iPhone, Apple watch or AirPod earphones. It’s a 21st century take on shouting, “your dinner’s ready” at the top of your voice to a teenager who doesn’t want to hear.

The HomePod Mini is a rival to cheaper but similar smart speakers from Amazon and Google, which have become the market leaders in those households not given over entirely to Apple products. They all interconnect with online services and will listen out for voice commands to forecast the weather, read the news and any uses you can find for them. But, oddly, their most useful function is seldom mentioned in the sales blurb.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This is their ability to connect to your phone, laptop or tablet via Bluetooth and to become a powerful, external loudspeaker for them. It’s hardly rocket science, for there are hundreds of small Bluetooth speakers already on the market, but the sophisticated acoustics within the little digital assistants do a better job than all but the most expensive of those.

It’s probably precisely because there are so many cheap Bluetooth speakers around that Apple, Amazon and Google don’t make more of a noise about their own products’ capabilities in that area. Voice-activated artificial intelligence is what they consider to be their selling points.

But with several generations of smart speakers now available, sometimes at heavily reduced prices, it would be foolish to overlook them – even if you can’t imagine yourself ever talking out loud to one.

Digital assistants are designed to fill a modest-sized room with reasonable quality sound, and while they cannot compete with dedicated hi-fi speakers like those from Sonos, they are fine for casual listening. Unlike Bluetooth speakers, which connect only to a single phone, smart speakers are internet devices in their own right and can communicate with online services like Spotify and stream music without the need for any other hardware. This means you can tell the speaker to play Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band and expect to hear it instantly.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

If, however, Sergeant Pepper resides on your phone, not the internet, you can put the handset into Bluetooth mode and instruct the speaker to connect to it. It will then behave in exactly the same way as a portable “dumb” speaker, expect that it has to remain plugged into the mains while you use it.

Amazon’s new Mini HomePod simplifies the process still further, by letting you hover your iPhone over the pod, to connect automatically. The mini units can also be paired together around the home to play audio in several rooms. Placing two of them in the same room will create a stereo effect.

Amazon and Google have upgraded their own ranges of Echo and Home smart speakers respectively, with Amazon’s fourth generation Echo Dot, at £50 perhaps the closest rival to the HomePod Mini. However, the differences between this year’s model and the previous one are largely cosmetic, and the third generation version is still on sale and better value.

Which make and model you choose may be a question of compatibility. If your phone is an Android model you may be drawn to Amazon or Google rather than Apple, but if you have other smart devices in your house – a Nest or Hive thermostat, for instance – check that the smart speaker you have in mind will let you control that, too.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.