The First Thing You Need to Do With Your HomePod Is Turn Off Personal Requests
The Apple HomePod is finally launching on February 9th, but reviews are already coming in. Overall, it looks like Apple has managed to create a great-sounding speaker while avoiding many of the features that would qualify it as smart. However, there is one “smart” feature that HomePod offers that you’re probably better off not using: personal queries.
At first glance, personal inquiries seem to be quite helpful. The basic idea is that it allows HomePod to access your personal information to read recent messages, dictate a reply, set reminders, create lists, and add notes using voice control.
The problem (as The Verge points out in its review) is that Apple doesn’t offer any custom voice recognition. This means that anyone with access to your Wi-Fi (like a roommate or your kids) can walk up to your HomePod and use it to read and respond to your recent text messages like you do.
In comparison, Google Home and Amazon Echo can be trained to distinguish between different voices. So, until Apple adds a similar feature, you’d be better off turning off personal requests (or not turning it on at all). Fortunately, this part is pretty straightforward.
When you turn on your new HomePod, Apple will ask you if you want to use personal requests. Just say no and continue with the rest of the setup process. If you’ve already turned on this feature (or didn’t pay attention during setup), you can turn it off at any time from the HomePod settings screen on your iPhone.
Apple clearly has a lot of work to do before the HomePod can really compete with Amazon and Google in the smart speaker race. Until then, at least it still sounds great, doesn’t it?