iOS 14.5 includes a feature that lets users select a specific music service to use with Siri, with the options including third-party services like Spotify in addition to Apple Music.
Several reports have referred to this as a feature that allows a user to select a default streaming music service, including our own, but Apple today told TechCrunch that the option is a bit more nuanced than a simple default music toggle.
There is no option to choose a music service that will be selected every time, with Apple instead using Siri intelligence. Siri will learn from your listening habits and the music selection process will improve over time. If you always ask Siri to select Spotify, for example, Spotify will be the default, but you can also change it in the future.
To be clear, when asking Siri to play a song in Spotify in iOS 14.5, it is not setting it as the "default," with Apple clarifying because the company does not want users to be confused if Siri asks again for your preferences in the future.
Siri will learn your preferences for all types of audio content rather than just music. It will let you open podcasts in Apple Podcasts or a third-party podcasts app, and let you choose a specific audiobook app if you listen to audiobooks.
Siri offers up a list of audio apps that you have installed whenever you make a content request, and that choice will dictate Siri's behavior going forward, but Siri may ask again in the future and even when a preferred audio option has been selected, it can be changed by asking for a different app. If you've selected Spotify, for example, but want to swap to Apple Music, you can say "Hey Siri, play [song] in Apple Music."
Apple has been improving the Siri audio request feature throughout the beta, and the third beta refines the dialogs for app selection. App developers are able to choose participate in the Siri app selection feature by making their apps available as an option.
The Siri app selection feature will be available to everyone when iOS 14.5 launches this spring.
