AirPlay 2 in practice - see how the novelty is used

The AirPlay 2 communication protocol has finally arrived after several months and delays. It will give users better control over what they play at home. It will then allow HomePod owners to connect two speakers to one stereo system. If you have an AirPlay 2 compatible device at home, but you still don't know what's new with the second generation of this protocol, the video below is for you.

The editors of the foreign website Appleinsider are behind it, and in a six-minute spot they present all the options and capabilities of AirPlay 2. So if you have a compatible device - i.e. either an iPhone or iPad with iOS 11.4, an Apple TV with tvOS 11.4 and one of the compatible speakers, the list of which was on Apple's official website published yesterday, you can start setting up and playing.

If you don't want to watch the video, here's the news in a nutshell: AirPlay 2 lets you stream music from your device to several other devices at once (must support AirPlay 2). You can change what is playing on them, you can change the volume or switch from one device to another. You can ask Siri to start playing a specific song on a specific device. So if you have multiple AirPlay 2 compatible devices in your apartment/house, you can use Siri to change the playback source, for example, depending on which room you are in at the moment. All the devices mentioned above are now available through HomeKit.

However, the AirPlay 2 protocol also has some disadvantages. First of all, it is not yet officially supported on the macOS operating system. For the time being, he has to make do with only the first generation, which considerably reduces his connectivity within the entire home network. System sounds can thus be sent to only one device, but iTunes allows to a limited extent the distribution of sound to multiple speakers at the same time. Another issue is that third-party speakers are unable to stream content on their own and are thus dependent on the iPhone/iPad/Apple TV connection, which in this case serves as the source. Are you happy with the arrival of AirPlay 2 or is it something that you completely miss?

Source: Appleinsider