Is Siri AI coming to your big HomePod? Maybe but probably not

This week Apple launched the 2nd-gen HomePod mini, which features a more powerful S10 processor than the original model and a selection of new colors. But the most significant upgrade is its ability to run Siri AI, a far more capable voice assistant than the basic Siri which caused such issues when controlling previous HomePods.

Customers who already have multiple HomePods in their home now face a dilemma: should they upgrade to take advantage of Siri AI when it arrives on the new HomePod mini (Apple currently says only that it’s “coming in a future software update”), or stick with the older models, which remain excellent speakers? By all accounts, the new HomePod minis sound the same as the old model and look identical other than the new color options.

It’s a particularly tricky decision when it comes to the full-size HomePod, which has no new model to speak of. Switching from a full-sized HomePod to a new HomePod mini would be a downgrade in sound quality, even if it would be an upgrade in other ways.

If you’re about to pull the trigger on that latter purchase just to get the new Siri, we suggest you hold off just for now. Because a new and rather mysterious clue suggests Apple might be planning to bring Siri AI to the full-size HomePod, although it isn’t clear whether this would involve a software update, or a new model. Or, for that matter, whether this is actually just a simple misunderstanding or error.

At time of writing, if you go to the buy page for the full-size HomePod and scroll down a little, you’ll see a table comparing the features and price of this product and the new HomePod mini headlined “Which HomePod is right for you?” with pictures of the two devices. But, as spotted by the Twitter user pdfu and confirmed by Macworld, if you right-click on the image of the big HomePod and check the alt text, you’ll see the following:

HomePod, white color, full-size cylindrical design, seamless acoustic mesh exterior, multi-colored Siri AI glow on top.

How could the full-size HomePod have a “multi-colored Siri AI glow” when it doesn’t support Siri AI? It’s all rather mysterious. And may, we should stress, just be an error by someone who recently updated the site to reflect the HomePod mini’s new capabilities.

But there is a real issue here. Right now it’s hard to see how Apple could possibly expect to sell the full-size HomePod. At $349, it costs more than twice as expensive as the new HomePod mini, even with the latest price hike, and officially doesn’t support Siri AI. It’s even more expensive than the new HomeView, which has a whole display attached to it. But more importantly, original Siri is really bad on the HomePod. Siri AI such an obvious and necessary step forward, that it’s tempting to regard the HomePod 2 as pretty much obsolete. Apple needs to announce an upgrade, or give up on the product entirely.

HomePod owners, or at least 2nd-gen HomePod owners, will be hoping this upgrade can be achieved through a free software update, but this is probably a false hope.

If we examine the official hardware requirements for Siri AI, we see that you need an iPhone or iPad with an A17 Pro or later, a Mac with an M1 or later, or, most crucially, an Apple Watch with an S9 or later. The HomePod mini has just been bumped from an S5 to an S10 processor, so it’s fine. But the full-size HomePod has an S7, which doesn’t have a Neural Engine. It just doesn’t seem like it would be capable of running anything other than a severely cut-down version of Siri AI.

At some point, I suspect, Apple will either announce a HomePod 3 or discontinue the full-size HomePod all over again. If it’s the first option, unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen soon, or Apple would have surely rolled this announcement in with the rest of Tuesday’s “Welcome Home” experience. So ultimately–and I would love to be wrong about this–the bold claim in the full-size HomePod’s alt text is probably just a mistake.