How to Turn HomePod Mini Into a Portable Speaker
HomePod mini is a more portable version of Apple’s HomePod, but that doesn’t make it a portable smart speaker. Since it requires power and Wi-Fi to operate, people usually plug the HomePod mini into a wall outlet and leave the speaker in the same place. But in reality, you can move your HomePod mini around the house and treat it like a portable home speaker—which is exactly what the folks at MacStories did with their HomePod mini, which they aptly call RoamPod .
How to use HomePod mini as a portable speaker
Their idea is simple: buy a HomePod mini accessory with a built-in battery and use it to make the device portable. If you could take a HomePod into any room you’re in, you might not have to buy extra speakers for your home, including extra HomePod minis—the ones you just move around with you.
To make the HomePod mini “portable” you’ll need a battery base, and you have two options: you can either purchase the Mission Battery Base ($42 at the time of writing) or the PlusAcc Battery Base ($44 at the time of writing). publishing). Mission Battery Base has the best reviews on Amazon, but you should check the reviews yourself before making a decision. Customer reviews say the PlusAcc product muffles sound and has a shorter battery life, which could be a deal breaker. Once you select an accessory, it can be easily connected. You can enjoy great sound quality with HomePod mini’s ability to play music directly from Apple Music or send any audio to your speaker via AirPlay.
Limitations of the portable HomePod mini
Despite all this, owning a HomePod mini can be a frustrating product. When it works, it’s great, but when it fails, the solution isn’t always easy to find. If you have multiple Wi-Fi routers or networks in your home, you never know which one the HomePod mini will connect to. Sometimes it connects to a weaker signal and doesn’t work well, and the best you can do is restart your computer and try again.
You might be tempted to take your HomePod mini with you when you travel, but that’s not a good idea. The speaker requires Wi-Fi to function, and finding a stable Wi-Fi connection is a challenge when you’re traveling. In this case, a Bluetooth speaker will serve you much better than a HomePod. Your “portable” HomePod mini may not offer the best battery life either: reports of 4-8 hours of music playback are fairly common on the battery bases we’ve linked to. This means that charging is another thing that you have to worry about quite often when you’re on the go.