Siri’s preference for Apple Music comes to an end with iOS 14.5. From now on, you can set which music app is opened when you ask a music-related question. This is how you set it up.
Set a default music app with Siri: this is how you do it
Although Spotify is the most popular music service in the Netherlands, Siri stubbornly stuck to Apple Music. Asking the assistant to play an album or song, without naming which app you wanted this to happen in, always ended in a one-way ticket to Apple’s Music app.
Fortunately, Apple is meeting music lovers with iOS 14.5 and you can now have Siri open other music apps as well. You just need to know that the option exists, because you won’t find it in the settings.
It goes like this. Make sure you have iOS 14.5 or newer installed, otherwise the step-by-step plan will not work.
This is how you set a default music app with Siri
- Ask Siri to play an artist’s album, song, or music. Like ‘Hey Siri, play Radiohead’;
- Siri will now ask which app you use to listen to music. Select the app from the list that appears on the screen;
- Siri will now play music in this app.
The big difference is that you no longer have to mention that Siri has to open Spotify. This is useful if you regularly use your iPhone hands-free, for example while driving.
According to Apple, there is a setting to enter this manually, because Siri has to learn from your behavior and thus gets better at making these kinds of decisions. However, we would have preferred an option in the Settings app, just like it setting a default mail app or standard browser works.