The touchpad on top of the HomePod can be pretty sensitive, making it likely you’ll trigger something accidentally if you haven’t already. There is a way to prevent accidental touches, though.
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To do this, you’ll actually be taking advantage of some Accessibility features included with the HomePod. While they’re technically meant for disabled users, those features can be useful for just about anyone.
To get started, open the Home app. On the “My Home” page, in the “Favorite Accessories” section, either long-press or 3D touch the HomePod icon.
On the HomePod’s page, tap the “Details” button.
On the details page, scroll down towards the bottom, and then select the “Accessibility” category.
On the “Accessibility” page, tap the “Touch Accommodations” setting.
On the “Touch Accommodations” page, turn on the “Touch Accommodations” toggle to enable it. This is the master switch that lets you completely turn on and off any and all Touch Accommodations that you have set up.
First, you can enable the “Hold Duration” accommodation. When this feature is enabled, you have to press down on the touch panel for a specific amount of time before it registers your touch. After enabling the option, you can hit “+” or “-” to change the duration required to register your touch.
Next, you can enable the “Ignore Repeat” option. This feature makes it so that multiple touches within a specific amount of time are only registered as one touch. And just like with the setting above it, you can tap on “+” or “-” to change the duration.
Finally, there’s the “Tap Assistance” section at the very bottom. This is great if you tend to slide your finger on the touch panel rather than tap on it.
If you tend to slide your finger to the point where you actually want to tap, select the “Use Final Touch Location” option. If you tend to slide your finger after you tap on the right spot, select the “Use Initial Touch Location” option. If you don’t find yourself doing either of these things, just leave the setting off.
You can set up whatever combination these settings you want to use and, as mentioned above, you can tap the toggle switch next to “Touch Accommodations” at the very top to enable or disable all the settings at once.
