Here's how to play ambient sounds on your HomePod

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited October 2020
One of the features that Apple added to the HomePod with the 13.2.1 update is the ability to play ambient sounds. Here's how to get them to play until you tell them to stop, or on a timer.




Once you get a handle of what Siri is looking for, the syntax is easy. You've got seven six options for ambient noise, above and beyond white noise.
  • Fireplace
  • Forest
  • Night
  • Ocean
  • Rain
  • Stream
For instance, to get the HomePod to play stream sounds until you want them to stop, say:
Hey Siri, play stream sounds
For the white noise generator, say:
Hey Siri, play white noise
To get those sounds to play for 30 minutes and shut off, start the sound of choice and say:
Hey Siri, set a sleep timer for 30 minutes
In our personal experience, we like the rain, stream, and fireplace sounds. Apple's stereo separation on a pair of HomePods is good -- and it won't let you alter the volume up or down.

There is repetition after about 15 minutes, it seems, but you really have to pay attention to the loop to see it. If you're trying to get to sleep, or focusing on a task, you won't even notice the repeat point.
jahbladeAndy.Hardwake
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    psych_guypsych_guy Posts: 486member
    I love my HomePods. I’m excited to hear the new sounds. One thing I wish I could do is set an alarm and wake up to the music of my choice, like a playlist or an album. That isn’t possible is it? Or am I missing something?
  • Reply 2 of 22
    jeromecjeromec Posts: 210member
    I can't believe how undiscoverable this is.

    Having voice as the only option to use ambient sounds is ridiculous.

    My HomePods are set up in French so I have to guess how to translate this in French.
    Totally ridiculous.

    I tried the French for "play ambient sounds" ... and it plays a "Mood" playlist.
    razorpit
  • Reply 3 of 22
    OhMatronOhMatron Posts: 1member
    psych_guy said:
    I love my HomePods. I’m excited to hear the new sounds. One thing I wish I could do is set an alarm and wake up to the music of my choice, like a playlist or an album. That isn’t possible is it? Or am I missing something?
    Have a look at Automation with the Home app on iOS. I have my HomeKit enabled lights turn on automatically at 9pm, so this should be too difficult

    having just tried it, I can automate my Apple TV at a particular time of day, so this should be possible.
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 4 of 22
    SpaceGrayAllDaySpaceGrayAllDay Posts: 14member
    OhMatron said:
    psych_guy said:
    I love my HomePods. I’m excited to hear the new sounds. One thing I wish I could do is set an alarm and wake up to the music of my choice, like a playlist or an album. That isn’t possible is it? Or am I missing something?
    Have a look at Automation with the Home app on iOS. I have my HomeKit enabled lights turn on automatically at 9pm, so this should be too difficult

    having just tried it, I can automate my Apple TV at a particular time of day, so this should be possible.
    I have my HomePod set to play music when I arrive home using the home app. You can also set an alarm of sorts by creating a rule that starts your HomePod and your given time. 
    StrangeDayslolliver
  • Reply 5 of 22
    psych_guypsych_guy Posts: 486member
    OhMatron said:
    psych_guy said:
    I love my HomePods. I’m excited to hear the new sounds. One thing I wish I could do is set an alarm and wake up to the music of my choice, like a playlist or an album. That isn’t possible is it? Or am I missing something?
    Have a look at Automation with the Home app on iOS. I have my HomeKit enabled lights turn on automatically at 9pm, so this should be too difficult

    having just tried it, I can automate my Apple TV at a particular time of day, so this should be possible.

    Oh man, if I could have it automate my Apple TVs too, that would be freaking awesome.  I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip!

    edited October 2019
  • Reply 6 of 22
    christophbchristophb Posts: 1,482member
    I asked her to play rain and she pulled a Beetles song from my library.  /sigh


    Edit: told her "Hey Siri, play rain sounds." and she responded with "Now playing rain from ambient sounds"
    edited October 2019 jahbladerevenant
  • Reply 7 of 22
    ClassicGeekClassicGeek Posts: 25unconfirmed, member
    psych_guy said:
    I love my HomePods. I’m excited to hear the new sounds. One thing I wish I could do is set an alarm and wake up to the music of my choice, like a playlist or an album. That isn’t possible is it? Or am I missing something?
    Add your HomePod as an accessory to your automation and the option to play music will be available. Works also for scenes.   One of my favorite new features in 13.2. 
    lolliver
  • Reply 8 of 22
    zhtfreakzhtfreak Posts: 31member
    Is the homepod pulling these sounds from another app like Siri does with TuneIn and iHeart for live radio now? I would love to try these ambient sounds to help get to sleep, but my homepod is in the living room. So it would be great to be able to play these ambient sounds on the iPhone.
  • Reply 9 of 22
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,687member
    Interesting little feature. I’ve been using the Nature Space app for a long time and it does essentially the same thing but it has a much broader and richer catalogue of ambient sounds. Unfortunately I have to use AirPlay to get Nature Space to work with HomePod. 

    Here’s a crazy idea, maybe Apple could develop a HomePod App Store for audio centric apps that run directly on the HomePod. Apps like Nature Space, audio book readers, and perhaps some sort of karaoke app that uses a paired iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch for the microphone and lyrics. Siri would have to be modified to allow it to pass through voice commands to the running app, for example, “Siri, tell Nature Space to play Zen Wind and Water.” 
    edited October 2019
  • Reply 10 of 22
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,921administrator
    zhtfreak said:
    Is the homepod pulling these sounds from another app like Siri does with TuneIn and iHeart for live radio now? I would love to try these ambient sounds to help get to sleep, but my homepod is in the living room. So it would be great to be able to play these ambient sounds on the iPhone.
    Based on what my router is saying, it appears to be coming from Apple content delivery networks.
    Andy.HardwakeStrangeDayslollivernewBeliever
  • Reply 11 of 22
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,068member
    jeromec said:
    I can't believe how undiscoverable this is.

    Having voice as the only option to use ambient sounds is ridiculous.

    My HomePods are set up in French so I have to guess how to translate this in French.
    Totally ridiculous.

    I tried the French for "play ambient sounds" ... and it plays a "Mood" playlist.
    It's fine. It's a voice-powered device so knowing what commands you can give it is part of the act. Same with appointments or texts or anything else. Luckily, humans are intelligent creatures -- I read an article about them one nite, and used them the next day. Amazing.

    I'm sure there will be support documents in your language soon. But hey, keep complaining about new free functionality until then.
    lollivernewBeliever
  • Reply 12 of 22
    CloudTalkinCloudTalkin Posts: 916member
    jeromec said:
    I can't believe how undiscoverable this is.

    Having voice as the only option to use ambient sounds is ridiculous.

    My HomePods are set up in French so I have to guess how to translate this in French.
    Totally ridiculous.

    I tried the French for "play ambient sounds" ... and it plays a "Mood" playlist.
    It's fine. It's a voice-powered device so knowing what commands you can give it is part of the act. Same with appointments or texts or anything else. Luckily, humans are intelligent creatures -- I read an article about them one nite, and used them the next day. Amazing.

    I'm sure there will be support documents in your language soon. But hey, keep complaining about new free functionality until then.
    @jeromec has a legit criticism.  The ambient sounds capability should be easier to discover.  Pretty much every Apple-centric site has members asking the same question and the sites have pretty much the same how-to article. Your suggestion to wait on a support document in your language makes no sense.  Essentially, what you're advocating is "Hey here's a feature, we'll get around to telling you how to use it at some point in the future."  Besides, I'm fairly sure Apple issues support documents in all the languages they support.  Free functionality is pretty useless if people can't easily use it.  Ask 3D Touch what happens when you aren't properly marketed.  I heard it's trying to sell bags of oranges at freeway on-ramps.  

    The HomePod is primarily Siri controlled.  Siri, how do I use the ambient sound feature... Siri, how do I play ambient sound... Siri, play ambient sound... Siri, call my weed man... I mean Siri is right there.  Since no one automatically knows the commands, she's the perfect teacher.  Seems like that would be a no brainer.
    edited October 2019 gatorguy
  • Reply 13 of 22
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,452member
    zhtfreak said:
    Is the homepod pulling these sounds from another app like Siri does with TuneIn and iHeart for live radio now? I would love to try these ambient sounds to help get to sleep, but my homepod is in the living room. So it would be great to be able to play these ambient sounds on the iPhone.
    There are a TON of ambient sound apps in the App Store for this purpose; you don’t need the sounds going to your HomePod. 
  • Reply 14 of 22
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,068member
    CloudTalkin said:
    jeromec said:
    I can't believe how undiscoverable this is.

    Having voice as the only option to use ambient sounds is ridiculous.

    My HomePods are set up in French so I have to guess how to translate this in French.
    Totally ridiculous.

    I tried the French for "play ambient sounds" ... and it plays a "Mood" playlist.
    It's fine. It's a voice-powered device so knowing what commands you can give it is part of the act. Same with appointments or texts or anything else. Luckily, humans are intelligent creatures -- I read an article about them one nite, and used them the next day. Amazing.

    I'm sure there will be support documents in your language soon. But hey, keep complaining about new free functionality until then.
    @jeromec has a legit criticism.  The ambient sounds capability should be easier to discover.  Pretty much every Apple-centric site has members asking the same question and the sites have pretty much the same how-to article. Your suggestion to wait on a support document in your language makes no sense.  Essentially, what you're advocating is "Hey here's a feature, we'll get around to telling you how to use it at some point in the future."  Besides, I'm fairly sure Apple issues support documents in all the languages they support.  Free functionality is pretty useless if people can't easily use it.  Ask 3D Touch what happens when you aren't properly marketed.  I heard it's trying to sell bags of oranges at freeway on-ramps.  

    The HomePod is primarily Siri controlled.  Siri, how do I use the ambient sound feature... Siri, how do I play ambient sound... Siri, play ambient sound... Siri, call my weed man... I mean Siri is right there.  Since no one automatically knows the commands, she's the perfect teacher.  Seems like that would be a no brainer.
    Like I said, this is brand new point-release added functionality. There will be new support documentation if there isn’t already. 

    I can’t think of any other HP voice-controller functionality that comes with a verbal tutorial. If it wasn’t a problem for adding appointments or using HomeKit, then I fail to see why this is a massive whine moment. 

    YMMV
    lolliver
  • Reply 15 of 22
    CloudTalkinCloudTalkin Posts: 916member
    jeromec said:
    I can't believe how undiscoverable this is.

    Having voice as the only option to use ambient sounds is ridiculous.

    My HomePods are set up in French so I have to guess how to translate this in French.
    Totally ridiculous.

    I tried the French for "play ambient sounds" ... and it plays a "Mood" playlist.
    It's fine. It's a voice-powered device so knowing what commands you can give it is part of the act. Same with appointments or texts or anything else. Luckily, humans are intelligent creatures -- I read an article about them one nite, and used them the next day. Amazing.

    I'm sure there will be support documents in your language soon. But hey, keep complaining about new free functionality until then.
    @jeromec has a legit criticism.  The ambient sounds capability should be easier to discover.  Pretty much every Apple-centric site has members asking the same question and the sites have pretty much the same how-to article. Your suggestion to wait on a support document in your language makes no sense.  Essentially, what you're advocating is "Hey here's a feature, we'll get around to telling you how to use it at some point in the future."  Besides, I'm fairly sure Apple issues support documents in all the languages they support.  Free functionality is pretty useless if people can't easily use it.  Ask 3D Touch what happens when you aren't properly marketed.  I heard it's trying to sell bags of oranges at freeway on-ramps.  

    The HomePod is primarily Siri controlled.  Siri, how do I use the ambient sound feature... Siri, how do I play ambient sound... Siri, play ambient sound... Siri, call my weed man... I mean Siri is right there.  Since no one automatically knows the commands, she's the perfect teacher.  Seems like that would be a no brainer.
    Like I said, this is brand new point-release added functionality. There will be new support documentation if there isn’t already. 

    I can’t think of any other HP voice-controller functionality that comes with a verbal tutorial. If it wasn’t a problem for adding appointments or using HomeKit, then I fail to see why this is a massive whine moment. 

    YMMV
    You can't think of any other voice controlled function that comes with a verbal tutorial because almost all of them come with written tutorials. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208336  At the bottom of that support doc is a note about ambient sounds.
     Listen to seven ambient sounds on HomePod—all without an Apple Music subscription. Use them in your scenes and automations in the Home app, or add an ambient sound to a sleep timer.  →That link "scenes and automations in the Home app" says nothing about ambient sounds btw.

    Nary an instruction to be found on how to use the ambient sounds. To be fair, my eyesight is atrocious, but even with that deficiency I saw nothing about how to engage the ambient sounds.  It's like I said: "Hey here's this new feature.  You figure it out."  Seems that a verbal tutorial does a couple of things.  Possibly increase engagement with a feature that seems to be fairly popular with some HP users.  Add a bit of novelty to Siri's usefulness. Covers the lack of info available about the feature.  If it proved popular, Apple could do more verbal tutorials.  Which makes sense on a voice controlled device.

    Putting out a feature that you don't explain makes no sense.  Saying the could put out a feature and explain how to use it later makes even less sense.  Here's a cool new feature and here's how to use it.  That makes sense.  
    macgui
  • Reply 16 of 22
    revenantrevenant Posts: 621member
    i like this a lot. i enjoy reading to the sound of the rain.

    "There is repetition after about 15 minutes, it seems, but you really have to pay attention to the loop to see it."

    what the ears can see.
  • Reply 17 of 22
    JapheyJaphey Posts: 1,772member
    jeromec said:
    I can't believe how undiscoverable this is.

    Having voice as the only option to use ambient sounds is ridiculous.

    My HomePods are set up in French so I have to guess how to translate this in French.
    Totally ridiculous.

    I tried the French for "play ambient sounds" ... and it plays a "Mood" playlist.
    It's fine. It's a voice-powered device so knowing what commands you can give it is part of the act. Same with appointments or texts or anything else. Luckily, humans are intelligent creatures -- I read an article about them one nite, and used them the next day. Amazing.

    I'm sure there will be support documents in your language soon. But hey, keep complaining about new free functionality until then.
    https://youtu.be/TjcOJmoJwpk
  • Reply 18 of 22
    darkroomdarkroom Posts: 4member
    I ask my HomePod to "Hey Siri, play white noise" and it will only play "Noise" by Cody Johnson (not even in my library) no matter how I try and phrase it. The other sounds seem unpredictable as well when they pull up. Bummer. All I need/want is a pop up box on my computer to allow me to enter data like I can do on the AppleTV because the voice control is so inaccurate. I'd say 20% of the time what I ask for is incorrectly interpreted by Siri. Even asking Siri to turn the volume up/down is inconsistent and sometimes my phone picks it up and sometimes the HomePod picks it up (seated in the same position spoken at the same volume level). I love the speaker quality, look, and ease of integration, but Siri voice control only is like the iPod Shuffle they released that had no buttons - it was replaced after one generation. As a side note, the best solution I've found to ease my frustrations is to use a program called "Airfoil" which allows me to stream only the Music app (or any selected app) to the HomePod, while system audio still comes through my computer speakers. It works great...and no, I don't work for Rogue Amoeba (the company that makes it), it's just that good!
  • Reply 19 of 22
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,452member
    darkroom said:
    I ask my HomePod to "Hey Siri, play white noise" and it will only play "Noise" by Cody Johnson (not even in my library) no matter how I try and phrase it. The other sounds seem unpredictable as well when they pull up. Bummer. All I need/want is a pop up box on my computer to allow me to enter data like I can do on the AppleTV because the voice control is so inaccurate. I'd say 20% of the time what I ask for is incorrectly interpreted by Siri. Even asking Siri to turn the volume up/down is inconsistent and sometimes my phone picks it up and sometimes the HomePod picks it up (seated in the same position spoken at the same volume level). I love the speaker quality, look, and ease of integration, but Siri voice control only is like the iPod Shuffle they released that had no buttons - it was replaced after one generation. As a side note, the best solution I've found to ease my frustrations is to use a program called "Airfoil" which allows me to stream only the Music app (or any selected app) to the HomePod, while system audio still comes through my computer speakers. It works great...and no, I don't work for Rogue Amoeba (the company that makes it), it's just that good!
    Why would you use Airfoil instead of just using AirPlay directly from the Music app? I love Airfoil, but the Music app is the one app you for sure don't need it for!
  • Reply 20 of 22
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    Wonder which feature will be used less. Widgets on Mac OS or this?

    At least with widgets you could see they were there and experiment. Without some visual clue no one will know these exist and will have been forgotten about by February.

    I’m an Apple nerd and didn’t know about this feature until this article. Even then when I tried to have Siri “play ambient fireplace” it “couldn’t find anything.”
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