Manage Airplay groups: add/remove additional airplay receivers to an AppleTV or HomePod

[scpotter]

Integration name

Apple TV

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/apple_tv

Describe the enhancement

Allow home assistant to manage airplay speaker groups using the existing pyatv Output Device commands to add/remove additional airplay receivers for an aTV/Homepod.

Use cases

There's no good way to automate which airplay receivers are in the group for an aTV/HomePod (in any ecosystem). Similar but inferior solutions:

• HA media player grouping doesn't work with Apple native functionality like Siri commands and iOS adjustments.
• Apple Home has limited automation with gaps like selection of the leader device, volume setting isn't programmatic, and group changes can only be triggered by playing media.
• Manually creating them on iOS/macOS is tedious and inaccurate.

Examples:

• When the aTV is playing and presence is detected on the deck, add the outdoor speakers to the aTV's airplay group.
• When arriving home on weekdays add kitchen, living room, and dining room airplay speakers to den aTV speaker group and play chill music.

Anything else?

A reasonable limitation would be to only add/remove other devices using the AppleTV integration.

[github-actions[bot]]

🏷️ I've automatically added the integration: apple_tv label to help categorize this feature request.

[kollhof]

Hey @scpotter, I have missed to raise a feature request, but have been working on a PR for the the past few days for this: home-assistant/core#163367

It can group players via the UI and actions in scripts/automation.
Grouping via Siri or apple devices will be reflected too.

[kollhof]

I am probably a bit impatient waiting for feedback on the PR and for it to go through (or not), but I find the grouping functionality rather useful. This would be my first contribution to homeassistant, so no clue how long things will take.

I have created a HACS repo using the same code as in the PR, so anyone else can play with it too.
https://github.com/kollhof/hacs-apple-tv

Warning

This is work in progress.
It will replace home assistant's Apple TV core integration!

[kollhof]

I was really looking forward to get stuck into contributing to the project. I have to say, the experience has not been motivating. The lack of communication did not help at all at times when I just needed a bit of direction for finding my way around the project and learning how things are done here. And having only Copilot providing feedback, way too early in the development phase, is just frustrating. I have to say I have lost the drive to keep going with this. I can just use my code via HACS, it solves my immediate needs. I would have really liked to start dedicating some time to the project, and was hoping this would be just the start, shame!