Apple could allow users to choose Spotify as their default music app in iOS 14, meaning that songs would play via Spotify whenever they asked Siri to play music or used their HomePod.
According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple is working on a new feature that will allow users to select third-party apps as their default on iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, a long-awaited feature that users have been asking for since the beginning of iOS.
The same would apply to other default apps like Maps, Safari, Notes, and Mail, making them more convenient.
Under the new plans, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pandora could be chosen as the default music playback option, meaning third-party music content could be streamed to HomePod devices for the first time.
At present, Spotify cannot be played on HomePod devices, and if users want to listen to Spotify on their phones, they need to ask Siri to “play X on Spotify”.
Last year, Spotify announced plans to file an antitrust complaint against Apple, complaining that the company couldn’t compete with Apple Music, which was baked into iOS devices.
At the time, Spotify said that Apple “ignores users’ preferred choice of music service and instead steers them to use Apple Music exclusively. So can you ask Siri to play your favorite playlist from Spotify? No, not even if you actively want Spotify to be your default streaming service.
“Or can you listen to Spotify through your Apple HomePod? Sorry, no luck with that either. By the way, Spotify is available on pretty much every other speaker device out there.”
By opening up iOS and iPadOS to third-parties, Apple could prevent further antitrust complaints and create a level playing field, where music streaming services and other apps could better compete with Apple’s core offerings.
It will also force Apple to up its game and force it to keep coming out with innovative features to encourage users to stay loyal to Apple, which can only be a good thing for consumers.
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