Shortcuts to play Ambient Sounds on HomePod

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Shortcuts to play Ambient Sounds on HomePod

I used to continuously play certain white noise and pink noise tracks on my bedroom HomePod to help me sleep. However the recent OS update is now inserting a brief gap of silence whenever a track plays instead of seamlessly cycling from the end back to the beginning. This has occasionally happened with other OS updates but it always seems to get resolved after a subsequent one. I'm just not sure if this is for some reason done by design or if it's a bug that keeps getting reintroduced with some OS updates.

In the meanwhile I have been asking Siri to play the white noise ambient sound throughout the night which has no gaps. The problem is that I cannot make these commands through my phone as I have done with playing tracks in the past and it wakes up my spouse when I have to verbally call out to Siri.

I would like to use an automation/shortcut to start the ambient sound but I cannot figure out any way to automate playing Ambient Sounds on HomePod using Shortcuts. Can anyone suggest how I might figure this out?

Posted on Dec 27, 2022 08:01 PM

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Answer 1

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Reymark Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 28, 2022 09:01 PM in response to Jeff_888

Hey Jeff_888 - thanks for taking the time to respond. I've created a few shortcuts for my HomePods throughout the house to play specific tracks or playlists - that's actually how I used to play my white/pink noise on my bedroom HomePod - but unfortunately as much as I've searched and consulted with others, I am unable to determine if it's even possible to create a shortcut to play the continuous-playing White Noise Ambient Sound since that cannot be found in my Music Library. I'd stick with my existing shortcut that used to play a white noise track from my Library however the latest update is placing a silent gap at the end of tracks when it transitions back to the beginning. I'm hoping the latter scenario is just a bug that is to be fixed (it's occurred and corrected itself in subsequent updates before) but if this gap is by design for the future then I would need a way to create a shortcut to play media from the Siri Ambient Sounds library.

A user from an online community has suggested buying a white noise app and AirPlaying it to the HomePod. I remembered that I have an old relaxation app that had a pretty great continuous white noise sound so I'm going to give that a shot until the non-continuous track bug (hopefully bug! *crosses fingers*) is fixed or a user is able to create a shortcut to play continuous media from the Siri Ambient Sounds library.

Best regards.

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Answer 2

Jeff_888

Community Specialist

Dec 28, 2022 06:25 PM in response to Reymark

Hi Reymark,

Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities. We understand you'd like to create a shortcut to start an ambient sound. We recommend starting with the Shortcuts user guide which also has a search feature. This may help with creating the shortcut you'd like: Use Shortcuts to automate tasks on iPhone.

"

In the Shortcuts app on your iOS or iPadOS device, Tap in the upper-right corner of the screen.

An empty, untitled shortcut appears in the shortcut editor.

2. Tap New Shortcut, tap Rename, type the name of your shortcut, then tap Done.

3. Tap Add Action.

A list of action categories appears.

4. Tap a category (such as Media or Web), then tap an action in the list to add it to your shortcut.

Note: You may have to scroll to see all the available actions in a category.

You can also touch and hold an action in the list, then drag it to the position you want in the shortcut editor.

5. To add another action, swipe up on the search field at the bottom of the screen, then choose an action.

Tip: When you add another action, the action category you previously chose from opens. To return to the list of all action categories, tap Done.

6. When you’re finished adding actions to your workflow, tap Done.

The shortcut is added to your shortcuts collection, in both the All Shortcuts and My Shortcuts categories.

For information on customizing the appearance of your new shortcut (the rectangle in your shortcuts collection), see Modify shortcut colors and icons on iPhone or iPad.

7. To test your new shortcut, tap on the shortcut to open it in the shortcut editor, then tap .

To stop the shortcut, tap .

"

If you need further assistance, Contact Apple Support.

Take care.

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Shortcuts to play Ambient Sounds on HomePod

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