Amazon Echo vs Apple HomePod

[Nathan Parker]

As a person who owns multiple Amazon Echo devices in my home, are there any good reasons to consider also owning an Apple HomePod, or am I better off remaining with just using Echo devices? I do own an iPhone, iPad, a couple of Macs, an Apple Watch, and Apple TV, and I’m especially curious if the HomePod in conjunction with Apple TV would give me increased sound when watching Apple TV content (although the sound on my current TV is pretty good at the moment).

Thanks!

Nathan Parker

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[Alex5723]

Nathan Parker wrote:

are there any good reasons to consider also owning an Apple HomePod,

These are 2 entirely different devices. One, Echo, is for Alexa Assistant and other noises. The other, HomePod, is for pure high quality music.

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Nathan Parker

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[Nathan Parker]

Got it. Thanks for the info!

Nathan Parker

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[Nathan Parker]

I believe there’s a way to route audio from an Apple TV to a HomePod. Does anyone happen to know how to do it?

Also, does anyone know if there’s a way to route audio from an Amazon Fire TV to a HomePod (maybe over Bluetooth or some other method)?

Eventually Amazon Fire TV will become my primary TV input, with Apple TV being my other TV input (right now my primary is a Channel Master DVR that’s slowly aging), and when my TV does eventually go, instead of an ugly wired soundbar, if I already had a HomePod sitting in my living room, routing audio from my Fire TV and Apple TV to it would be a nice alternative.

Nathan Parker

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[Alex5723]

Nathan Parker wrote:

I believe there’s a way to route audio from an Apple TV to a HomePod. Does anyone happen to know how to do it?

Also, does anyone know if there’s a way to route audio from an Amazon Fire TV to a HomePod (maybe over Bluetooth or some other method)?

Eventually Amazon Fire TV will become my primary TV input, with Apple TV being my other TV input (right now my primary is a Channel Master DVR that’s slowly aging), and when my TV does eventually go, instead of an ugly wired soundbar, if I already had a HomePod sitting in my living room, routing audio from my Fire TV and Apple TV to it would be a nice alternative.

How to set up your HomePod with your Apple TV

https://www.imore.com/how-set-up-your-homepod-your-apple-tv

How to Use Your HomePod as a Speaker for Your Apple TV

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/homepod-as-apple-tv-speaker/

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Nathan Parker

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[Nathan Parker]

Great! Is there a way to connect it to Fire TV as well? Maybe over Bluetooth?

Nathan Parker

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[Alex5723]

Nathan Parker wrote:

Great! Is there a way to connect it to Fire TV as well? Maybe over Bluetooth?

You can’t. You need AirPlay support.

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Nathan Parker

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[Nathan Parker]

Great to know. Thanks!

Nathan Parker

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[Nathan Parker]

I may purchase a HomePod later this year (around Christmastime) to see if I want to move to it from Alexa (I’m wanting to pivot off some of my non-Apple hardware and pivot more toward all Apple hardware).

Since HomePod doesn’t offer quite the skills of Alexa, I’m wondering if I can use Siri Shortcuts or IFTTT to automate some of the stuff I do with Alexa Skills. All of my smart home devices already support HomeKit, so I’m set there. It’s only a handful of skills I’d need to find a way to replace on HomePod.

Nathan Parker

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