Apple will be bringing lossless audio to the HomePod, with the Apple Music feature surfacing in the third beta of the HomePod 15 operating system.
Issued to AppleSeed testers on Monday, the HomePod 15 beta 3 was seeded without any known changes made to testers. However, it appears that the third beta does introduce one key new feature.
The beta has been found to include support for Lossless audio, a feature of Apple Music that streams tracks at a high fidelity. While the feature typically requires speakers or wired headphones to function, the HomePod and HomePod mini didn’t gain support for it when Lossless first rolled out.
A support page update in May shortly after its introduction confirmed the lack of compatibility, but Apple advised “support for lossless is coming in a future software update.” At the time, Apple didn’t advise of how long the wait would be until support would be added to its smart speakers.
The beta may introduce changes that affected HomePods that used the second beta, which caused devices to overheat and stop functioning. The HomePod mini was seemingly unaffected by the issue.
AppleInsider strongly advises users avoid installing beta software onto “mission-critical” or primary hardware, due to the chance of data loss, a reduction in performance, or other issues. It is instead recommended to install betas onto non-essential devices, and to ensure there are sufficient backups of important data available.
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