Set up more people in your house to control lights, check news and weather, or listen to songs with your HomePod. HomePod offers many features, and you may want others to be able to use some features. Here is how to customize and set up your HomePod for your household.

How to invite someone to control your home accessories

If you want someone to control smart gadgets like lights, temperature controller, locks, airplay audio, etc then you can invite them. Here is how.

1.    Open ‘Home’ app on your iPhone.

2.    Click on the ‘Home’ tab at the bottom.

3.    Click on ‘Home settings’ icon (white arrow in a circle) at the top.

4.    Click on ‘Invite…’ text.

5.    Type the ‘Apple ID’ of the person you want to invite.

6.    Click on ‘Send Invite’ text at the top.

An invitation will send to the Apple ID you’d entered. If you got an invitation request and want to accept it, then here is how to accept an invitation.

Steps to accept an invitation:

1.    Open the ‘Home’ app on your iPhone you got an invitation.

2.    Click on the ‘Home’ tab at the bottom.

3.    Click on ‘Home settings’ icon (white arrow in a circle) at the top.

4.    Click ‘Accept.’

After accepting the request, you can access controls.

How to keep your notes, texts, calendars, and reminders private on your HomePod

Here is how to protect all of your personal data.

1.    Open the ‘Home’ app on the iPhone you got an invitation.

2.    Click on the ‘Home’ tab at the bottom.

3.    Click on ‘Home settings’ icon (white arrow in a circle) at the top.

4.    Under people, click your ‘Avatar’ icon.

5.    Click ‘Personal Requests’ option.

6.    Click and turn off ‘Personal Requests’ button.

7.    Click on ‘For Secure Requests’ to set up authentication.

If you’ve set up authentication, then the other users need your authentication to access your notes.

How to keep your HomePod speaker out of wrong people

If you don’t set up any restrictions, then anyone can send and play audio on your HomePod. Here is how to set speaker access.

1.    Open the ‘Home’ app on the iPhone you got an invitation.

2.    Click on the ‘Home’ tab at the bottom.

3.    Click on ‘Home settings’ icon (white arrow in a circle) at the top.

4.    Click on ‘Allow Speaker Access.’

5.    Select ‘Everyone/people on the same network/Only people sharing this home.’

6.    Click ‘Require Password’ to set up a password for additional security.

7.    Click ‘Password’ to change.

How to prevent music requests from affecting your Apple Music recommendations

1.    Open the ‘Home’ app on the iPhone you got an invitation.

2.    Click and hold your ‘HomePod.’

3.    Click the ‘Details’ button.

4.    Click the ‘Use listening History’ button and turn it off.

That’s it! This will protect your Music recommendations.

Mathew Anderson is a Microsoft Office expert and has been working in the technical industry since 2002. As a technical expert, Mathew has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as office.com/setup.