Using Siri to play songs in Emby

[sjkiss 23]

Hi there is it possible to use Siri to control Emby with iOS 16, specifically on an iPhone?

it will allow me to open Emby but not start playing a song or anything useful. I see scattered references online that this was addressed for services like Spotify in iOS 14 so I don’t know what is going on. Thank you

[sjkiss 23]

No takers on this?

[Luke 39655]

Hi, what exactly are you saying to Siri to play?

[sjkiss 23]

Saying “Hey Siri, open Emby” works. Emby opens up. If I manually start something playing, saying “Hey Siri, play next song” works, as does “pause” and “stop”

but what will not work is stuff like: “Hey Siri, play Badlands by Bruce Springsteen “ or any song title or playlist title. 
 

siri returns with “working on it” and after a pause “uh-oh, there’s a problem “. Then it stops. 
 

But that’s where the money is! 
 

I can get it to play with those commands in Apple Music, but I really don’t want to use that app.

[Luke 39655]

Hi, can you try Emby for iOS 2.2.11 and let us know how that compares? Thanks.

[sjkiss 23]

Did that, and restarted the phone but no improvement.

[Maarten 3]

It is working, for music and radio.

first remove the default music player… ask Siri to play music and see what app is playing.

Start Emby on iPhone and play a song or radio station. Now open the iOS shortcuts app and create a new shortcut thing. Now go to the search bar at the bottom and drag it up. Now you should see the Emby command, or search for Emby. Don’t create a shortcut. Just ask Siri the same song to play. This should work, if not you have still another music app as defailt. I can say: Hey Siri, play artist song/radio station. No need to say Emby. Music will play without opening the Emby app

 

this only plays stuff on your iPhone/connected Bluetooth speakers. It won’t cast movies or stuf, would be creat tho.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Maarten

[sjkiss 23]

1 hour ago, Maarten said:

It is working, for music and radio.

first remove the default music player… ask Siri to play music and see what app is playing.

How do you remove Apple Music?

[Maarten 3]

Just how you remove every other app. 
when you do and you ask Siri: play some music it probably ask you what app to use for playing music, say Emby and you are done. (Did not got the last step in this phone, but have seen it on other iPhone.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Maarten

[sjkiss 23]

Got it to work but I had to uninstall and install emby. Also @Maartenis right, it only seems to work with downloaded music. @Lukeis that by design? What are the odds of that changing? Thank you.

[Luke 39655]

On 8/28/2023 at 9:33 AM, sjkiss said:

Got it to work but I had to uninstall and install emby. Also @Maartenis right, it only seems to work with downloaded music. @Lukeis that by design? What are the odds of that changing? Thank you.

What exactly happens when you try to play something not downloaded?