YouTube Music is finally coming to the HomePod, we just don't know when

A white Homepod alongside two homepod minis, one white one blue

(Image credit: Future / iMore)

It looks like YouTube Music integration will finally be coming to your Apple HomePod and Apple HomePod Mini, according to code found by @aaronp613 in the YouTube Music app. The downside is, there's no indication of when we'll be getting it.

Apple leaker @aaronp613 tweeted a screenshot of a section of the YouTube Music app's code that is labeled 'connect with homepod', suggesting integration with the Apple HomePod might be on its way to us all soon.

Making YouTube Music your default

Integration of YouTube Music with both Apple's Siri and HomePod is a long time coming. Several music services have been available through the Apple HomePod over the past few years already, like Deezer, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and TuneIn Radio, among others.

However, even though Apple has granted third-party developers the option to add this sort of native support since iOS 14, you won't find every music service offers slick integration with the Apple HomePod. (We're looking at you, Spotify.)

The benefit of having a third-party service as an integrated, default option in this way means that whenever you ask Siri to play something it'll play it directly from that service unless you instruct it not to. That's good news for Google and YouTube Music, as it means that it might become the first streaming port of call for more Apple HomePod users over time.

This integration would make sense and be the latest in a string of new developments from YouTube Music that could help the streaming service compete with several of its biggest rivals. For example, earlier in the year, Google brought podcasts to its music streamer, adding a new library of content all helpfully included in one app. In this way, it's offering up a similar all-in-one destination to the most popular streaming, Spotify.

Becca Caddy is a contributor to iMore, as well as a freelance journalist and author. She’s been writing about consumer tech and popular science for more than a decade, covering all kinds of topics, including why robots have eyes and whether we’ll experience the overview effect one day. She’s particularly interested in VR/AR, wearables, digital health, space tech and chatting to experts and academics about the future. She’s contributed to TechRadar, T3, Wired, New Scientist, The Guardian, Inverse and many more. Her first book, Screen Time, came out in January 2021 with Bonnier Books. She loves science-fiction, brutalist architecture, and spending too much time floating through space in virtual reality. Last time she checked, she still holds a Guinness World Record alongside iMore Editor in Chief Gerald Lynch for playing the largest game of Tetris ever made, too.