Although absent from Monday’s keynote, the HomePod and HomePod mini are set to gain new features with iOS 27, and new hardware is expected later this year to fully leverage Siri AI. Here’s what you need to know.
Rather than announcing a slew of new features, Apple is playing it safe this year by releasing updates to resolve performance and stability issues caused by major new features that had been introduced in recent releases. Despite the lack of new features, Apple is bringing some new enhancements to the HomePod before we see new hardware later this year.
AutoMix and Improved AirPlay
With iOS 26, Apple introduced AutoMix for Apple Music subscribers. This allows for enhanced transitions between songs rather than crossfading two songs together at a specific time offset. The HomePod did not receive this update last year, but iOS 27 is set to finally bring it over.
Another major update is improved AirPlay, with Apple mentioning during the keynote that iOS 27 brings “Faster AirPlay connections to Apple TV and HomePod.” This should improve the latency and connection drops that many users have experienced for several years.
New Hardware Is Coming
When asked about new HomePod and Apple TV hardware back in March during a live Q&A between Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and Tim Stenovec, Gurman mentioned that Apple “has wanted to get the Apple Intelligence and new Siri features working in those products before rolling out the new versions. They could have rolled them out last year, but it’s just about waiting for that, just like they’ve been waiting for the smart home display.”
Considering the first-generation HomePod runs an Apple A8 chip and continues to receive updates, I believe its time is coming and will not support Siri AI. This could also expand to the second-generation model or the HomePod mini since those devices use Apple Watch SoCs and watchOS dropped support for several recent models. The HomePod mini has never received a full hardware update since it was introduced.
What are your thoughts? Should Apple continue to support the older HomePod and HomePod mini? Or is it finally time for a decent spec bump? Sound off below.
