Using a custom song as an alarm clock on HomePod is possible thanks to the Shortcuts application and our iPhone

Clearly, when we talk about alarm clocks, some melodies are more interesting than others. We need a song that, in addition to loving it, has an appropriate beat to get us out of bed. Preferably, in addition, it is really recommended that the melody starts with a moderate volume and increases, to avoid a shock at the agreed time.

Given this, and if we’re talking about using our HomePod or HomePod mini as an alarm clock, the best option is that we choose the song ourselves in question. Something that requires a little inventiveness, because it will be thanks to the Shortcuts application and our iPhone that we will achieve our goal. So let’s talk about how to use a custom song as an alarm clock on our HomePod.

Simple automation that allows us great flexibility

By default, the wake-up alarm we set on our HomePod via Siri has a specific tone, which we cannot change. Fortunately, with our iPhone we can create an automation to play exactly the song that interests us and at the time that we want. The exact steps to follow are:

1. We open the Shortcuts app on our iPhone.
2. We enter the tab Automating.
3. We touch the “+” to add a new one.
4. we choose Create a personal automation.
5. we play in time of the day.
6. We step in time and keep on repeating Every day or We approach Every week and we decide which days of the week we want to use our alarm.
7. we press Next.
8. In the search engine at the bottom we write “Play * and choose Play music.
9. we play in Music and we choose the song in question or a playlist.
10. In the search engine at the bottom we write “reproduction” and choose Change playback destination.
11. we play in iPhone and we chose our HomePod.
12. we play Next.
13. We disable confirmation request.
14. we play don’t ask.
15. we play OKAY.

Ready. It is true that presented like this in list form, 15 steps may seem like a lot, but the truth is that they are simple and very intuitive. Special mention to the possibility of using a playlist to be used as an alarm clock. Once this option is chosen, we can simply modify the playlist -also its order- to easily change our alarm clock.

The Shortcuts app is truly amazing when it comes to adding versatility to our devices. Sometimes it might go through an app to get things done faster, but the truth is that use cases like the one we just saw clearly show that it goes much further. In this case, allowing us to use a custom song as an alarm clock on the HomePod.

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