Apple may have officially discontinued the Airport Express network extender, along with the rest of its wifi hardware, but it released a big firmware update yesterday for the Airport Express. As long as you have a second-generation Airport Express (released in June of 2012), the update allows you to stream directly to connected speakers via AirPlay 2.
This means you can synchronize your playback with other AirPlay 2-compatible speakers in your house, like your Apple HomePod, anything hooked up to your Apple TV, and various Sonos speakers (to name a few). You can also assign your Airport Express to a room via Apple’s Home app, which lets you then control what’s playing via Siri.
To update your Airport Express, dust off the Airport Utility on macOS or iOS and load it up. If you don’t see a little red notification badge on the Express indicating an update is available, you may have to restart the Express by selecting it and choosing Base Station > Restart. Once it reappears, just click or tap the Express in the network layout and press the “Update” button in the popup.
It’s a bit of a bummer to see that first-generation Airport Express routers don’t get a firmware update, however. I use mine to add AirPlay capabilities to my trusty Pioneer SP-BS22-LRs and standalone amp. With Airfoil on my Mac I can play to those and the soundbar attached to my Apple TV simultaneously, just not from iOS—it would have been nice.
AirPort Express firmware update adds AirPlay 2 and Home app support | 9TO5Mac