HomePod will be a better assistant when it learns this useful voice feature

Zac Hall | Jan 10 2022 - 7:05 am PT

A few nights ago, I was a few ocean wave crashes away from falling asleep when a thought populated my mind. I desperately wanted to capture the idea without breaking the dark with my iPhone screen. Easy, I have a HomePod mini in the bedroom, so I’ll just use Siri! That’s when I realized the HomePod still has a handy voice feature left to learn.

How it works now

Writing songs and pairing lyrics with guitar is very cathartic for me. Often enough my best ideas come on a run, in the shower, or when I’m reflecting on a subject before I drift away for the night. The challenge with this process is that it’s often tricky to capture the words and way to sing it without Voice Memos.

Believe it or not, creating a recording in Voice Memos is not a hands-free experience. Siri is kind enough to launch the Voice Memos app when you say “record a voice memo,” but you still need to tap the big red record button.

This works on iPhone and iPad, Apple Watch, and even the Mac. There’s no Voice Memos app or integration on HomePod, however, so Siri just doesn’t know what to do with the request.

Unsurprisingly, Siri on HomePod responds to me by asking me which Apple TV to use. I humored the response with an answer, then Siri points me to the App Store before proceeding. Cool.

How it could work

What I expect Siri to learn someday is how to initiate a recording session so you can capture your thought without a screen. For now, there are alternative ways of capturing ideas through dictation. You can create or add to a note or make a reminder, but this loses the element of actual sound. Even if you’re not capturing a song idea, words can flow easier sometimes when speaking versus typing or gambling with dictation.

HomePod has learned loads of new skills over the years. Did you know you can make an announcement through your HomePods from another HomePod or the Home app? It’s a very appropriate feature for a smart voice assistant.

Recording voice memos would be too! Hopefully the next big software update for HomePod later this year includes Voice Memos support. What do you think? Share your thoughts — just not with Voice Memos on HomePod, yet.