Use a Proximity Gesture to Play Music from Spotify / Apple Music on HomePod with iPhone

Whether you have a HomePod or HomePod mini in your own house, or you’re visiting elsewhere with a HomePod, you can quickly and easily play music from Spotify or Apple Music on the HomePod from your iPhone with a simple physical proximity gesture.

This trick is so simple and useful but it’s not well known, and it’s literally just a matter of placing your iPhone in close proximity to the HomePod. You can obviously play music on HomePod and HomePod mini a variety of other ways too, from AirPlay or playing Music on HomePod with Siri, but it’s arguably much easier, doesn’t involve any menu navigation, and let’s be honest, with how unreliable Siri is (still, in 2025), it’s a much more reliable way to play music too.

How to Easily Play Music from Spotify & Apple Music on HomePod from iPhone with a Proximity Gesture

This is a super easy trick, and it’s a great way to play music from your iPhone with Apple Music or Spotify onto a HomePod. Be sure you’re on the same wi-fi network as the HomePod or HomePod mini, and the rest is ultra simple:

1. Join the iPhone to the same wi-fi network as the HomePod or HomePod mini
2. Open Spotify or Apple Music and start playing a song on the iPhone
3. Now bring the iPhone playing music in close proximity to the HomePod and wait a moment, the light on the HomePod will light up and the music will transfer from playing on your iPhone to the HomePod

As you can see in the stunning International Photography Awards winning photo of an iPhone near a HomePod, simply playing music on iphone and holding it near the homePod will transfer the music from one to the other.

This is much faster and easier than playing music with Spotify or Apple Music and then accessing the AirPlay menu to transfer it to the HomePod or HomePod mini, and it’s pretty seamless.

This is a great trick to use when you’re visiting elsewhere with a HomePod, perhaps a friends house, relatives, or even a hotel or AirBNB stay.

Note that if you want to play the music on multiple HomePods, or on HomePod and Sonos simultaneously, you’ll still need to access the AirPlay menu for that to work.

If HomePod is not responding to the iPhone proximity trick, which is generally one of the most reliable ways to play music on the device, you might want to unplug it and plug it back in again. You’ll also want to be sure you’re on the same wi-fi network, and that your wi-fi and bluetooth is enabled on iPhone, and that you have an updated version of Spotify or Apple Music. This trick probably works with other music apps and podcast apps too, but those are the two most popular. It also works with the ambient music feature, if you want to enjoy that.

Do you use the iPhone proximity trick to play music on HomePod or HomePod mini? What do you think of these proximity type features? Share your thoughts in the comments.