Reliable way of switching AirPlay to handoff to homepod

Can someone enlighten me on how to *reliably* handoff Apple Music to my HomePod without physically putting the iPhone against the HomePod? Yes, I have Handoff enabled on the phone. Typically I have a song playing on the phone. I can then click on the little icon at the bottom of the screen. If I select my HomePod then I get iPhone-> HomePod airplay. If instead I select Control Other Devices then when I select the HomePod the song I was playing no longer appears, instead the queue is empty or it shows the last thing played on the HomePod itself. If I then go and manually find the song again in Apple Music I can finally have the HomePod directly play it, but that is a lot of extra steps.