It looks like the Apple HomePod is about to get a much needed feature: Calendar access. Right now HomePod isn’t able to access your calendar. It can access your Messages, Reminders and Notes, which is handy but having calendar access is key to increasing the productivity of users of the smart speaker. It looks like it is going to be changing pretty soon.
In the 3rd beta of iOS 11.4, when you go through the process of setting up an Apple HomePod, you now will see an icon for Calendar along with Messages, Reminders and Notes. It is the strongest indication yet that calendar support is coming – although Apple hasn’t said anything on the topic to date.
Once iOS 11.4 rolls out, which should be just a matter of weeks now, there will also need to be an update to the HomePod firmware to make all the magic work. Once that happens, you should be able to ask Siri via your HomePod calendar information. In all likelihood, this feature will only work with iCloud calendars, much like Google Home only works with Google Calendars.
As previously posted, the HomePod has not exactly set the world alight when it comes to sales with some Apple stores starting to have inventories build up. With calendar integration however, the smart speaker becomes much more useful in the day-to-day of users and should help bolster sales.
