How to make your HomePod recognize multiple users

You’ve got one HomePod in your living room and four people who want to use it. How do you make them all use their own playlists, podcasts, calendars, reminders, and lists?

- JASON CROSS

In our initial assessment of the HomePod (go.macworld.com/hdrv), we found it to be a great listening device for Apple Music or Podcasts, but frustratingly limited in many other ways. That’s still largely true, but at least some of our complaints have been addressed in subsequent software updates.

Perhaps the most important was the iOS 13.2 update that added multiuser support for the HomePod. As a device designed to sit out in the common rooms of your home, it was beyond frustrating that it was locked to a single Apple ID, and that anyone using it would be listening to your music (and influencing your recommendations), your lists, your calendar, etc.

You can now make the HomePod recognize multiple users, which means each user will use their own Apple Music account, calendar, lists, and reminders. Setting this up isn’t quite as intuitive as it could be, so here’s a quick walkthrough of how to get it working.