Even while Apple may not have had the success they had hoped for, HomePod and HomePod mini are still being actively developed, and iOS 26 will provide the smart speakers two new features.
Apple Music’s Crossfade feature, which enhances song transitions, is now supported with the release of iOS 26 and HomePod Software 26.
Coming to HomePod are controls for crossfade and Wi-Fi settings
The option to enable Crossfade is now available to beta testers with the second HomePod Software 26 and iOS 26 betas. When you launch the Home app, navigate to Settings, tap on someone’s name, and select Apple Music, you will find the rather hidden toggle.
Users can modify the fade in and fade out duration for song transitions by adjusting the crossfade time, which can be set between one and 12 seconds. Turning on Crossfade causes the volume of the song that is ending to gradually drop while the volume of the song that is starting to play to rise. Its purpose is to avoid silences in between songs.
Since Crossfade is an Apple Music feature, using it requires an Apple Music subscription. Although it has long been available on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Apple has only recently added it to the HomePod.
Crossfade has been replaced by the new AutoMix feature in Apple Music in iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. AutoMix uses beat matching and time stretching to create a DJ-like song transition experience, going beyond simple crossfading.
It was anticipated that Apple would launch a significant push for new home products in 2025.
According to Mark Gurman, earlier this year, the company had intended to release a brand-new “HomePad” product. Although it may make an unexpected appearance in the fall, it has apparently been postponed until Siri’s AI enhancements are complete.
The release of the HomePod mini 2 and the brand-new Apple TV 4K are still anticipated.
As it happens, HomePod is also getting a few new software features.
So far, beta testers of HomePod 26 (the iOS 26 version of HomePod) have found two changes:
- The Wi-Fi network of your HomePod can be viewed and changed.
- Additionally, Apple Music has the Crossfade feature.
The procedure of updating the Wi-Fi network on a HomePod hasn’t always been the most straightforward.
“HomePod automatically connects to the same Wi-Fi network as your iPhone or iPad,” according to Apple’s help page. It’s not quite that easy, though, as anyone who has ever had to troubleshoot connectivity issues on their HomePod knows.
Crossfade allows you to configure songs to change between 1 to 12 seconds, much like it does on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
With the HomePad and new HomePod hardware in the pipeline, we can only hope that iOS 26 will eventually bring even more HomePod features.
Another new feature in the HomePod 26 software is the ability to choose which Wi-Fi network to connect to, which was not previously possible.