The lack of Calendar support for Siri on HomePod has been a glaring issue of Apple’s home speaker since its release earlier this year. Now new evidence suggests that will soon change when iOS 11.4 is released.
Siri Personal Requests on HomePod currently only work for Messages, Reminders and Notes. These are associated with the iPhone that was used to set up HomePod and only work for a single user when both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network.
Amazon Alexa, for comparison, has supported iCloud Calendar interactions on Echo smart speakers since before HomePod was officially unveiled. A few months after release, HomePod appears to finally be catching up with a feature you would expect from day one.
While setting up a new HomePod for the first time, the iOS step-by-step process asks the user if they want to enable Personal Requests, showing examples of apps that can be used with the feature. Until iOS 11.4 beta 2, the apps shown were limited to Messages, Reminders and Notes. With iOS 11.4 beta 3, the setup interface now shows Messages, Reminders, Calendar and Notes.
Although the description below the icons has not been changed yet to indicate Calendar support, this is a pretty good indication that Siri on HomePod will support Calendar soon — making Personal Requests more useful to users.
Support for Calendar requests on HomePod should roll out when iOS 11.4 and the associated HomePod software update are released to all users. It can’t be tested at the moment because there’s no developer or public software beta available for HomePod, which should get its 11.4 update alongside iOS in a few weeks.
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