Apple betas continue work to put Dolby Atmos and lossless audio on HomePod

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Two white homepods sitting on a television stand
Two white homepods sitting on a television stand (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple's recent iOS 15 and HomePod 15 betas include more support for Dolby Atmos and lossless audio on HomePod.
  • A new option allows both Apple Music features to be enabled via the Home app..

Apple continues its work to bring Dolby Atmos and lossless audio support to Apple Music for HomePods with the latest beta release of iOS 15 and HomePod 15 software.

The latest betas, which were made available to developers and those on the public beta program earlier this week, enable new options in the Home app. Those new options enable Dolby Atmos and lossless audio output for HomePods, as reported by 9to5Mac.

Apple explains the two features, found in the Home Settings portion of the Home app on iPhones and iPads.

Lossless Audio: Lossless audio files preserve every detail of the original file. Turning this on will consume significantly more data.Dolby Atmos: Play supported songs in Dolby Atmos and other Dolby Audio formats.

The feature will be available on both HomePod and HomePod mini hardware this fall, assuming all goes according to plan during the testing process.

Anyone with the latest iOS 15 beta and the HomePod 15 beta installed can take this for a spin right now. While a public beta for iOS 15 is already available, getting the HomePod beta installed is more tricky. The only way to get in on that program is to be invited via the AppleSeed program.

Apple's HomePod has already been discontinued, but the $99 HomePod mini has proven popular as its replacement. Be sure to check out our collection of the best HomePod deals before placing any orders of your own.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.