The beta reportedly addresses a relatively small but important demand: multiple timers. As with Amazon and Google, you could set one timer for the veggies cooking on the stove and another for the roast in the oven. Other additions would include a HomePod version of Find My iPhone, Spanish language support and a "fix WiFi" feature that makes the HomePod connect to your iPhone's network when there's a mismatch (you previously had to reset the HomePod to solve this).

There's no guarantee that these features will make the cut for Apple's customary round of fall software updates, assuming they make the cut at all. It took Apple months to bring multi-speaker stereo and AirPlay 2 to the HomePod despite promising both in 2017. And these still wouldn't address some of the larger gripes with the HomePod, such as its lack of multi-user voice recognition. If this proves accurate, though, the HomePod would be an easier sell to people who want more than a souped-up music player.