HomeKit iOS 11 Speaker support?

[timstans]

Any plans?

[denizkoekden]

First AirPlay 2 has to be implemented. IDK if there already is someone, who tries to update his Project to AirPlay 2.

[pdlove]

I'm excited about the possibility of implementing Airplay 2 on a raspberry pi hooked to my current in-wall speakers. I'm definitely interested in this project if it gets going. There are a few projects for airplay on node in github. I'm not sure that airplay really fits in with homebridge, but we'll have to see how the HomeKit side of it is implemented. I'll get the developer tools downloaded and take a look at some point this week to see if I can figure it out.

[KhaosT]

Based on brief disassemble of the code, it looks like AirPlay 2 support has nothing directly to do with HAP. homed just asks system what AirPlay 2 devices are available and will show them as unpaired accessories which you can add to home. Essentially, if any existing AirPlay implementation adds support for AirPlay 2 then it should show up in Home app automatically.

[hadolphs]

Immediate question that came to my head was wether now we can actually make sonos speakers show like speakers in the sonos plugin(s) ... would love to see that happening. I would be interested in that project as well.

[justme-1968]

yes. that would also be the main application for this with the fhem platform plugin. to make various av devices appear as speakers. most of them (especially sonos) will probably never implement airplay.

[hadolphs]

Yeah, its clear that sonos is partnering with Amazon and Apple explicitly called them as a competitor in the presentation... so I doubt sonos will do airplay 2 (they never did airplay 1 for starters). So definitely the way to go is homebridge to sonos.

[ebaauw]

I fitted my home with Sonos throughout and I don't subscribe to Apple Music - I won't be moving to HomePod anytime soon. I'm eager to update my homebridge-zp plugin as soon as we know the new characteristics and services. Would be cool for Siri to understand Volume instead of having to expose it as brightness.

[benzman81]

Actually, what I would like to have is that sonos can be integrated in homekit, so that I can tell the HomePod to Play Michael Jackson in the Living room on my Sonos group. If thats not possible via homekit and just with airplay2 than we actually need an airplay2 to sonos bridge. And that would have nothing to do with homebridge.

[fraannk]

It would be amazing if HomeKit could show existing Chromecast Audios as AirPlay 2 speakers with a Homebridge plugin.

[pdlove]

From what I can tell, Airplay 2 isn't technically a HomeKit device. This mirrors what KhaosT said above. This being said, there are Airplay 1 solutions out there using a Raspberry Pi. I'm sure they won't take long to get to Airplay 2 once examples are out.

[philipsaad]

The 'Speaker' accessory and AirPlay 2 are two completely different things. The former describes how to control a speaker (Mute & Volume) while the later streams audio to that device.

According to the public HomeKit Accessory Protocol Specification, the Speaker accessory type is defined as follows:

UUID: 00000113-0000-1000-8000-0026BB765291
Type: public.hap.service.speaker

Required Characteristics:
Mute:

• Type: public.hap.characteristic.mute
• UUID: 0000011A-0000-1000-8000-0026BB765291

Optional Characteristics:
Name

• Type: public.hap.characteristic.name
• UUID: 00000023-0000-1000-8000-0026BB765291

Volume:

• Type: public.hap.characteristic.volume
• UUID: 00000119-0000-1000-8000-0026BB765291

[JosephDuffy]

I have just tried to use this as part of a plugin I create for computer speaker, but when I create a Speaker with Mute and Volume characteristics I see "Not Supported" within the Home app. I am on the latest version of Homebridge. Currently I have my code in another branch.

I am running the iOS 11 GM, which I was expecting would support the speaker.

[aficustree]

@JosephDuffy, same here, seems odd

[meijerpeter]

Would be awesome if Speakers would be supported! Currently I use my Mac Mini as a central hub and Airfoil to stream to my other Airplay speakers. I run an JSON API (https://github.com/meijerpeter/airfoil-api) on my Mac Mini to control these speakers (volume, on/off) via the homebridge-http plugin. Would be amazing if we can use the native speakers in iOS 11 for this too!

[suderman]

Looking forward to speaker support in the Home app. I guess we'll have to wait for some point release in iOS 11.x? So far, I've been using the fan accessory to control volume in my home theatre. It works, but the icon is weird! 😛

[NorthernMan54]

Fan, that’s interesting. I’ve been using a light bulb. On/Off and brightness for volume.

…

On Sep 21, 2017, at 4:14 PM, Jonathan Suderman ***@***.***> wrote: Looking forward to speaker support in the Home app. I guess we'll have to wait for some point release in iOS 11.x? So far, I've been using the fan accessory to control volume in my home theatre. It works, but the icon is weird! 😛 — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[ebaauw]

Using a fan seems odd, but it allows Siri control of volume through fan speed. Using brightness for that seems less odd, but Siri will also change the speaker volume when you only want her to change the lights. homebridge-zp lets you choose how you to expose the Sonos speakers.

So far I haven’t seen any changes in iOS 11 for handling the Speaker service, nor for the Volume and Mute characteristics. My AppleTV, now on iOS 11, which should do Airplay2, shouldn’t it, doesn’t show in Home either.

[vswraith]

Did anyone get this to work yet on ios11?

[ebaauw]

Sonos announced Airplay2 support coming next year!

[fraannk]

Alright, I tried with the new iOS 11.2 beta. I've added my Sonos speakers as "speakers" with the homebridge-zp plugin. While they show as a speaker accessory in the Eve app, it now just crashes the built in Home app... Back to setting up my speakers as fans, so they work in the built in Home app... :(

[aficustree]

fingers crossed it cleans up with the next beta. i had to give up living with the beta builds but curious to see how it comes along. I don't like the fan or light switch hacks as "siri turn the downstairs lights off" results in a sudden reduction in teh usefulness of my receiver.

[ebaauw]

Apparently, Apple’s Home app on iOS 11.2 beta also crashes on Stateless Programmable Switches, so, fingers crossed, it would seem they’re changing something...

Until that time it remains a develish dilemma:

• Using Speaker/Volume makes most sense, but isn’t supported by Siri nor by Apple’s home;
• Using Fan/Rotation Speed makes no sense at all, but enables Siri to change the speaker volume and light brightness independently;
• Using Light/Brightness makes more sense than Rotation Speed, is supported by Siri, but linked to the light brightness.

I ended up using Switch/Volume, which still makes sense, supports on/off from Siri and Apple’s Home app, but not volume.

[ebaauw]

Alright, I tried with the new iOS 11.2 beta. I've added my Sonos speakers as "speakers" with the homebridge-zp plugin. While they show as a speaker accessory in the Eve app, it now just crashes the built in Home app.

Which beta version was that? In 11.2 public beta 2, with the "service": "speakers" setting, Home just shows a Not Supported tile as with 11.1 and earlier versions.

[fraannk]

I was using developer beta 1 at the time. Beta 2 also shows “Not Supported” for me now.

[fraannk]

Still “Not Supported” when using the speaker service, in iOS 11.2 developer beta 3.

[garethallenstringer]

How are things looking on iOS11.2b6 (15C114)?
(CC: @ebaauw @fraannk)

[fraannk]

Same, still "Not Supported" :(

[fraannk]

iOS 11.2.5 b1 still not supported. My bet is support in 11.3 :)

[fraannk]

I still get a "Not Supported" tile as of the official 11.2.5 release. 🙁

[aficustree]

Do we know what iOS will be needed to support the HomePod?

[philipsaad]

11.2.5 is what is needed to support the HomePod.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/23/apple-releases-ios-11-2-5/

[aficustree]

quite interesting, would seem to then imply that home will not be able to manage the home pod on day 1 or that we're doing something wrong.

[mdshw5]

https://9to5mac.com/2018/01/23/homepod-airplay/

If multi-room playback is managed through HomeKit, then that makes sense given Apple's announcement. Personally I'm a bit disappointed about the UI changes surrounding Airplay. It seems like Apple doesn't write know what they're doing, or they haven't communicated their user stories/experiences to key people in.

[ebaauw]

See https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/23/homepod-speakerphone-multi-user-commands/:

As Apple shared earlier this morning, HomePod will eventually support multi-room playback and stereo sound by linking one or more HomePods together using the new AirPlay 2 protocol, but that functionality will not be available at launch.

Looks like we need to wait for Airplay2, which is not yet available at the launch of the HomePod. No ETA on Airplay 2, but it won't be anytime soon - it's not included in the first 11.3 beta.

[sebj]

Perhaps (hopefully!) AirPlay 2 may ship in iOS 11.3, just not in the first beta.

https://twitter.com/iryantldr/status/956228515191500800

[fraannk]

Yeah, I think you're right. Tried the first beta of 11.3, and still no luck. :)

[mdshw5]

Ask and yea shall receive: https://9to5mac.com/2018/01/24/airplay-2-rolling-out-ios-11-3/

[simonrb2000]

It’s in iOS 11.3 beta 1 as mentioned above. Remember you will need your Apple TV also running on the new tvOS 11.3 Beta 1 otherwise it won’t work...

[KhaosT]

I thought I was clear enough in my original comment but apparently not.

Home app's media accessory (HomePod, Apple TV, AirPlay 2 devices) support in iOS 11 is not using HomeKit Accessory Protocol, there is simply no services/characteristics you can create to just have your HAP accessory to show up as a "speaker" in Home app. To have Home app recognize a device as a "speaker", you need to implement AirPlay 2 protocol instead of HAP. And currently as of iOS 11.3 beta 1, non-Apple AirPlay 2 devices will not actually show up unless you have a special configuration profile installed to override iOS settings.

The existing Speaker and Microphone services defined in HAP is only for IP Camera. It has nothing to do with iOS 11's Whole House Audio.

[simonrb2000]

KhaosT; I was only referencing that its now out to try, not that it needs implementing on Homebridge. Like you said it will show up if in the home app if you have an AirPlay 2 compatible speaker.

[philipsaad]

Removed in the 11.3 GM, meh.

[henry-spanka]

Still no luck with iOS 11.4. Speaker still shown as unsupported accessory :(

[mriksman]

It’s unlikely it’ll ever be a part of the Homekit space; it uses Airplay 2. It’s like hoping ARKit will be a part of Homekit. Or ‘OK Google’. Or ‘Hey Alexa’.... Regards, Michael Riksman Sent from iPhone On 3 Jun 2018, at 7:37 pm, Henry Spanka <notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.com>> wrote: Still no luck with iOS 11.4. Speaker still shown as unsupported accessory :( — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fnfarina%2Fhomebridge%2Fissues%2F1326%23issuecomment-394156065&data=02%7C01%7C%7C08e28e07d75347999a9508d5c9465e49%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636636226416831236&sdata=01ni%2BX1n%2FeawQUoBiHhZ3RC6x1kp9AGmZTKMzjqSihw%3D&reserved=0>, or mute the thread<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fnotifications%2Funsubscribe-auth%2FATLj05Rq1ZApdNP8W53NUYY9VxuyHjG2ks5t48pwgaJpZM4Nwfgl&data=02%7C01%7C%7C08e28e07d75347999a9508d5c9465e49%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636636226416831236&sdata=1gFzgrt7w9tbG%2BqKQZSe6kzcm8g0IzA5Lj%2FECsPbuos%3D&reserved=0>.

[jeylites]

Has anyone tried the speaker function on IOS 13? I would be a nice feature to add.