iOS 14.5 Lets You Set Spotify, YouTube Music, and Others as Default for Siri
Feb. 9, 2021When Applereleased iOS 14.5 betalast week, it brought the ability touse Apple Watch to unlock their iPhones. Among other changes, the Cupertino giant seems to have also added the flexibility to let usersset third-partymusic streaming servicesas default for Siri.
As first spotted by users on r/iOSBeta subreddit, iPhone users will no longer have to specify the app’s name while using Siri to play their favorite songs. Instead,Siri will prompt users to choose the default music streaming app. This is a welcome addition for those who rely on Siri to play music.Image: u/matejamm1 / Reddit
In a similar change, some users have noted that Siri sets the app you specify in a voice command as default when you use the voice assistant to play songs for the first time on iOS 14.5. For instance, if you say a command asking Siri to play songs on Spotify, Siri will set Spotify as your default service.
At this moment, the feature seems to be a bit inconsistent though. Few users report that Siri automatically reverts to Apple Music in some cases. However, we could expect Apple to fix that before iOS 14.5 gets a stable release.
Apple’s move to expand Siri support to third-party services by default comes after the company allowed users toset default email and browser apps. In fact, you can nowset Google Chrome as your default web browseron iPhones (or Firefox, if that’s your browser of choice.)
On the Google side of things, Google Assistant now lets youset Apple Music as your default music streaming service, although it is still limited to the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Japan.
Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.
