Apple is giving users another good reason to try out the latest public beta.
Hawk eyes Redditors using the public beta of iOS 14.5 noted that when the assistant asks Siri to play music, the assistant will ask the user which music app to use to play the song or artist. Normally Siri will default to the Apple Music app when no app is specified. But as confirmed by Gizmodo, asking Siri to “play Phoebe Bridgers” in iOS 14.5, for example, will bring up a menu with options for Apple Music, Spotify, Podcasts, and for some reason Books.
Reddit user matejamm1, who shared a screenshot of the feature and installed other music apps, saw those apps on this screen too.
With Spotify selected from this menu, Siri appears to be using that app by default the next time it asks to play music, but the feature is fairly buggy. When I was testing the option to set my default music app as Spotify in iOS 14.5, Siri sometimes used Spotify by default, sometimes opened Apple Music and sometimes brought up the same menu to select from which app I want the song or wanted to play the music. However, colleagues who aren’t on the public beta didn’t have this option when they asked Siri to play music, so it’s a thing.
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It’s one more reason to explore Apple’s latest public beta, especially for those of us who aren’t exactly thrilled with Apple’s own services. Recently, the company is slowly forcing us to use them. Last year, iOS 14 introduced the ability to change your preference mail and browser apps to non-Apple services such as Chrome and Gmail. The ability to change other default options would be welcome.
Another standout feature of the iOS 14.5 public beta is the ability to use an Apple Watch unlock your iPhone while wearing a mask. Sure, it can only save you a few seconds spent manually entering your passcode, but listen, it makes the process of unlocking your phone while wearing a mask a bit less of a hassle. I’ve been testing it for the past few days and found it to work fine.
In 2021 we will already be saving time and streaming better. A small win, but I’ll take it.