HomePod siri takes over from phone... then asks to refer to phone?

Right so whenever I speak directly into my iphone to siri and ask a question (whether through saying "hey siri" or manually activating it), literally anything, it stops listening halfway through (as evidenced by the rainbow border dissapearing from around the screen) and then the homepod takes over listening and answering...and the irony is it says "I can answer that question if you ask me again from your iphone!"... How in the actual **** am I meant to ask from my iphone if when I do it stops listening and the homepod takes over. I am genuinely confused. Also, why cant the homepod even answer me?