Denon Quietly Adds Siri Functionality to its Smart Speakers

A while back, Ecobee added the possibility to have Siri on a range of their smart thermostats, allowing you to activate Siri directly. Now Denon has taken the same approach for some of their smart speakers, which now allows Siri to be accessed from them.

This is all achieved via an update within the HEOS app that’s used for Denon smart speakers. Full instructions found HERE. For Siri to function in the first place, you will need a Siri enabled speaker to begin with – like the HomePod or HomePod Mini – which is also the case with the aforementioned Ecobee integration. This is because Siri isn’t actually built into these devices, but merely relayed to the speakers.

The smart speaker range has always been able to summon a voice assistant, with Alexa built into their speakers, but now with Siri, people who prefer the latter, will now be able to access Apple’s voice assistant in more locations, and not just where their nearest HomePod happens to be.

The models compatible with this update are the Denon Home series models 150, 250, 350, and Soundbar 550. All of these speakers already have AirPlay 2 integration, but in order to add the Siri update, you will initially have to remove them from your smart home, and re-add them afterwards. Additionally, if you previously used Alexa, with the Siri update Amazon’s voice assistant will be disabled, as only one of these can be active.

Big thanks to Siobhán Ellis at Practical HomeKit Blogspot for tipping us off.