HomePod update to bring support for third-party music services

Apple announced a number of new features for its various software platforms today, but this one kind of flew under-the-radar. During its presentation on HomeKit, the company displayed a slide that seemed to indicate the HomePod will soon be receiving support for third-party music services.

As it currently stands, you can stream music from a third-party music app to the HomePod via AirPlay. But today’s note implies that Apple’s smart speaker will soon support these services natively, meaning you’ll be able to use apps like Spotify on the HomePod without the need for a separate device.

Other details on this feature are scarce thus far, and since the new HomePod software isn’t available yet, we can’t try it out for ourselves. Still this will clearly be seen as a positive by current HomePod users, and may even provide a boost for the smart speaker, which has been lagging behind competitors.