Apple’s HomePod may soon be gaining support for making and answering phone calls, setting multiple timers, and locating a user’s iPhone. A new report from iGeneration has offered a peek into Apple’s upcoming HomePod OS 12 update, which is currently in closed beta and likely scheduled for release this fall alongside iOS 12.
According to the report, the beta already includes phone call features that allow the user to initiate calls and answer calls from the HomePod using Siri, rather than simply using it as a speakerphone for calls already placed on the user’s iPhone. In addition, users will also be able to listen to voicemail message and search call history from the associated iPhone, presumably subject to the same limitations that are already in place for handling messages, notes, reminders, and calendars.
HomePod will also be gaining support for Find My iPhone so that users can ask Siri to make their device play a sound to help locate it. Support for multiple timers is also said to be forthcoming, with the feature already in beta, allowing users to start and run more than one timer simultaneously, presumably allowing users to name each timer via Siri when starting it, similar to how alarms can be renamed already.