Apple may let you choose your favorite music service as the default on HomePod or Siri, a report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg claims. At first, this might not sound like that big of a deal, but it is, and here’s why.
Will the next iOS let you make Spotify your default music player?
Choice is good
Are you a Safari or a Chrome kind of guy? Do you prefer Apple Maps or Google Maps (or the brilliant Here WeGo)? Like to listen to Apple Music or Spotify?
Thing is, when you click a link in an email on your iPhone, it automatically launches in Safari. Ask Siri to play a music track and it’ll only search Apple Music by default. And if you click on an address in your calendar, the mapping service which will open up will be Apple Maps.
The latest move, if it happens, will see users be able to choose which is their default app – just as you can set Chrome as your default browser on the Mac for instance.
It’ll be the continuation of an opening-up of its services that Apple has been doing, slowly, in recent years. You can, for instance, choose which search engine you want as the default on your iOS device, picking from Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Worth noting, of course, that Apple doesn’t have its own search engine to offer as a default in this case.
The walled garden limits competition
You can, of course, choose to use Chrome as your browser on your iPhone. Just download the Chrome app and away you go. But you can’t make it the default, so Safari will open when you click on a link. This means, rival app developers say, that their apps are at a disadvantage, with Apple’s apps exerting a greater influence because they’re the default.
Apple often points out that its own Maps app is the mapping app most used on the iPhone. And it’s certainly come on in recent years, so it’s an excellent choice. Except, the thing is, in many cases it’s not a choice, it’s what launches automatically.
So, to let third-party apps in to the world of first-choice default could make a big difference.
One fewer click
To be clear, it’s not that you can’t get a link to open in Chrome or an address to launch in Google Maps. But it requires extra work. You need to highlight the link and choose copy, then open the relevant app and paste. These extra clicks can be annoying, so the option to make sure your favorite app is used every time is a bonus.
Will Google Maps be everyone's mapping app default?
Will nobody use Apple Maps?
That’s not why Apple has its Maps as the default. Apple, you may have heard, likes to be in control of every detail and it knows that it apps work together seamlessly. So, there’s good reason for the set-up.
Users will want to be sure of as smooth a ride with other apps, which means the app developers will have extra work on their hands. As super-clued-up Apple reporter Jonny Evans reports at Apple Must, “There are advantages to the tight integration between apps and hardware on the company’s platforms, and any such move would likely place pressure on development teams to ensure good user experiences.”
Spotify could be the service that launches when you ask Siri to play you a tune.
Will Spotify on HomePod kill Apple Music?
Again, no. If Apple permits users to use Spotify on the HomePod it may mean that the HomePod hardware, arguably not one of Apple’s biggest-sellers, could see a real uptick. After all, it’s a spectacularly good smart speaker and Spotify lovers may have been put off that they can’t say, “Hey, Siri, play my Sounds of Summer Playlist” if that’s a Spotify list. Sure, such a move is unlikely to actually add Apple Music subscribers, but it could sell a lot of HomePods.
So there are benefits for Siri, too?
Sure. Right now, you can ask Siri to play a track on your iPhone and add the words “on Spotify” but again, how much simpler not to have to do that. These tiny behavior simplifications are something that Apple has made part of its DNA.
Will it happen?
We don’t know yet. But it’s one of those seemingly small changes that could have a big effect. Even if you decide Apple Maps, Apple Music, Mail and Safari are the ones you want, it’s just nice to have choices.
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