AirPlay 2 coming soon to iOS after being seen at WWDC earlier this summer.
While we haven't tested AirPlay 2 yet, it already promises a lot. AirPlay 2 enables multi-room audio playback, works with Apple TV, and compatible speakers will work with HomeKit and Siri.
What is AirPlay?
AirPlay is the Apple's wireless media streaming technology which allows you to send media from Apple devices to compatible Apple systems. For example, you can play a song or podcast episode from your iPhone to an AirPlay speaker wirelessly via Wi-Fi.
AirPlay differs from Bluetooth because range can be only as good as your Wi-Fi network And there's less pairing involved, but third-party AirPlay speakers often suffer from lag during playback and can be interrupted by a phone call.
AirPlay originates from 2004 when it was called AirTunes and only worked with audio from Apple applications. AirTunes became AirPlay, as we know it today, in 2010 and added Screen Mirroring one year later.
Features
It will be the first major update for audio transmission in seven years. AirPlay 2 allows for a much higher level of buffering so audio can follow even if you temporarily lose connection, receive a phone call, or record a video. This should also help significantly with the overall delay during playback that occurs when using AirPlay with third-party speakers. AirPlay 2 too enables multi-room audio playback from iOS. Previously, you could play multi-room audio using AirPlay from iTunes on a Mac or PC, but the feature was not possible from iPhone and iPad. With AirPlay 2, any compatible iOS application will be able to play audio wirelessly on multiple speakers simultaneously with controls to manage multi-room audio playback directly from the Control Center.
Speakers that work with AirPlay 2 too will appear in the Apple Home app along with HomeKit accessoriessuch as connected light bulbs and smart thermostats. AirPlay 2 has yet to be made publicly available, but HomeKit's support for speakers could be really great for home automation.
HomeKit lets you create scenes and automations so you can control multiple accessories with a single command. Adding music control to the Night Party set with which you already control the lighting would be impressive, but at the moment it is not clear if this can be brought to life. What we do know is that Home app support extends Siri control to your speakers using AirPlay2, including multi-room audio playback, so you can tell Siri on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV to play a song in the kitchen and living room, for example.
AirPlay 2 speakers
The AirPlay speaker market has never flourished, in part due to higher costs and poor performance, but AirPlay 2 will hopefully solve the latter problem. Apple has already announced a number of committed speaker manufacturers With AirPlay 2 speaker production: Bang & Olufsen, Naim, Bose, Devialet, Dynaudio, Polk, Denon, McIntosh, Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins, Libratone, Definitive Technology and BlueSound will work with AirPlay2. The Apple TV and Apple TV 4K speakers will also be AirPlay 2 speakers when the feature launches.
Apple's upcoming HomePod speaker, which incorporates Siri, will be the first exclusive AirPlay 2 speaker to come out and Apple-owned Beats will also make AirPlay 2 speakers in the future. Sonos, who for a long time offers its own solution for multi-room wireless audio playback, it has also announced that it plans to support the AirPlay 2 system sometime next year with existing speakers already on the market.
Availability
AirPlay 2 was announced as part of iOS 11 over the summer, but it didn't come out with iOS 11.0 in September. iOS 11.2 beta already includes the first signs of AirPlay 2, but the feature is not yet fully featured. Apple has promised that the HomePod, which is the first AirPlay2 speaker, will launch sometime in December, however, so hopefully AirPlay 2 will be available before the end of the year.