Here are the HomePod touch gestures that allow easy navigation & music playback control

Aside from announcing HomePod’s February 9 availability, Apple’s now updated the official webpage for its $349 Siri-driven wireless speaker with some previously unknown tidbits.

According to the refreshed webpage, the speaker’s top recognizes the following gestures:

  • Tap: touch the top of your HomePod to play or pause music
  • Double-tap: touch the top of your HomePod twice to skip to the next track
  • Triple-tap: touch the top of your HomePod there times to play the previous track
  • Tap or hold “+“: touch or hold the plus sign on the HomePod top to up the volume
  • Tap or hold “-”: touch or hold the minus sign on the HomePod top to lower the volume
  • Tap and hold—touch and hold the top of your HomePod to talk to Siri

You’ll know Siri is listening by the LED waveform that animates with your every word.

Of course, customers can also invoke Siri hands-free by uttering the familiar “Hey Siri” hot phrase. Thanks to its six built-in beam-forming microphone array, HomePod can hear “Hey Siri” from across the room, even when loud music is playing.

You can adjust touch sensitivity and other HomePod features in Apple’s stock Home app.

And with Automatic Setup, you can simply hold an iPhone next to your HomePod to transfer relevant settings and accounts to the wireless speaker in seconds.

Some of the HomePod settings you’ll be able to control in the Home app include:

  • General: naming the room where your HomePod is located
  • Music and podcasts: explicit content, EQ, history of music recommendations
  • Siri: Siri tone and visual feedback via the speaker’s LED lights at the top
  • Accessibility: double-touch delay, button sensitivity, voice speed

It supports multiple user accounts and lets you shut down its always-listening microphones to prevent “Hey Siri” from working, which could be useful in a house party scenario.

HomePod sends encrypted information to Apple servers using an anonymous Siri identifier that cannot be traced back to you, but only after the “Hey Siri” hot phrase is recognized locally.

Screenshots courtesy of iGeneration.fr

HomePod will be available to order in White or Space Gray from Apple.com this Friday, January 26 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. The wireless speaker is priced at $349 in the United States, £319 in the United Kingdom and $499 in Australia.

It’s scheduled to launch in France and Germany this spring.

Multi-room audio and stereo is coming to HomePod this year in a free software update, Apple has said, adding that Siri is now actively used on more than half a billion devices.

Will you buy or pass on HomePod?

Leave your comment below.