Google Home

10 MORE Tips and Tricks for the Google Home

January 16, 2018

Back in October of last year, I posted an article about my Top 10 Tips and Tricks for the Google Home. However, the Google Home is getting better and better every day so today I have 10 MORE Tips and Tricks for the Google Home.

1. Turn TV on and off using a Chromecast

If you have a Chromecast connected to your TV, you can use it with Google Home to turn on and off your TV. For this feature to work, your TV must support HDMI-CEC. Also, you must connect your Chromecast to an electrical outlet instead of a USB port on the back of your TV. Like that, it remains on when the TV is off, and you can send the command to turn on the TV.

2. Multiple commands at once

Not too long ago, Google quietly releases this update, allowing to say two commands in one single interaction. For example, you can now ask, “Hey Google,” turn on living room lights and turn on the living room TV or “Ok Google,” play Chill music from Spotify and set the volume to 50%. You can also pair two commands together using shortcuts and create a simple phrase to trigger them.

3. set up audio groups

With Audio groups, you can play music or other audio content on multiple Google Homes at the same time. To set up a group, open the Home app, tap on Devices and open the menu for one of the speakers that you would like to set up and then select Create Group. Now, set up a name and choose the speakers that you want on the group and then tap on Save. When finished with the setup, the new group will show on the Devices tab.

Whenever you want to play something on the new group, just say “OK Google,” plus the content that you would like to play and then the name of the audio group where you want to play it. For example, “OK Google,” play the latest news on Home Group.

4. Change Assistant voice

At the time of this video, if you live in the United States you can now change the Google Assistant voice from a female to a male voice. To do it, you can ask Google:

“Hey Google, change your voice.”

The other way to do it’s via the Home app. When you open the app, tap on the Menu icon, then go into More Settings, Preferences and Assistant Voice. Here you have Voice 1, which is the female voice and Voice 2, which is the male voice. If you click on the speaker icon on the right, you can hear a preview of how each voice sounds.

Something to have in mind though is that switching the Assistant voice in the Google home, will also change it on your mobile device.

5. Night mode

Night mode is one of the number 1 features that you want to enable as soon as you set up a new Google Home. Night mode allows you to set up a schedule to automatically control the volume level and the LEDs brightness of your Google Home.

To set it up, go into the Home app, Devices, Tap on the Menu icon for one of the speaker and then Settings. Scroll down and tap Enable Night Mode. Then, set up the time and days that Night mode will be activated. Lastly, select the maximum volume level and the brightness that you would like for night time.

Have in mind that you will need to perform this steps for each speaker that you have.

6. Use Google Home to broadcast messages

How to use Broadcast in the Google Home

The Broadcast feature in the Google Home is one of my favorite features. If you have multiple Assistant speakers around your home, you can now ask Google to broadcast a message for you, and it will play on all Google Homes connected to your home WiFi. You can also use the Google Assistant on your phone to relay a message, and you do not have to be on the same WiFi.

7. Sleep timers

If you are like me, you probably like to fall asleep listening to soft music, and with the Google Home, it makes it easy to fire up a playlist. And, instead of leaving the music playing all night, you can now ask your Google Home to set up a sleep timer.

There are multiple ways that you can set it up. For example, if the music is already playing, you can say, “Hey Google” set up a sleep timer for 30 minutes or stop playing music at 2 o’clock. Another way is when you are setting the music to play. You can say “Hey Google” play Jazz music for 30 minutes, or until 2 o’clock. To cancel a sleep timer, you can just say cancel sleep timer.

8. Set up guest mode

Guest mode allows visitors to cast their favorite media to your Google Home without having to connect to your home WiFi.

To enable Guest Mode, open the Home app on your device, then go into Devices, open the Menu for the Home speaker that you would like to set up, tap on Guest Mode and switch it on. Now, your guest can open a Chromecast enable app and tap on the Cast icon and select Nearby Devices. When the device tries to connect, Google Home will automatically transfer a four-digit PIN using a short audio tone. If that fails, the person attempting to join will be asked to enter the four-digit PIN found in the Home app of the device connected to your home WiFi. After the device authenticates, your guest will be able to cast their content to your Google Home.

9. Find my phone

Find my Phone is one of the features that my wife loves. Every time she cannot find her smartphone, Google Home is always there to help her find it.

To use this features, you can quickly ask, “Hey Google,” find my phone and the Google Assistant will ring your device at full volume even if you have the phone in do not disturb.
For this feature to work, anyone that wants to use it must have their Google account and voice link to the Google Home.

10. Reminders and remember where you left things

There are two types of reminders that you can use.

You can ask the assistant to remind you to do something on a specific day and time. When that particular day and time comes, you will get a reminder notification on your phone; you also hear the Google Home say that it has a reminder available for you and 1 of the LED lights will remain on until you listen to the reminder.
You can ask Google Home to remember where you left things. This feature is great for those type of items that you do not use that often, for example, spare keys or important documents. To set up this type of reminder, you can say for example, “Hey Google,” remember that my spare keys are in my desk’s second drawer in a white envelope. And the next time that you are looking for your spare keys, you can ask, “Hey Google,” where are my spare keys?

All right guys, those where another 10 tips and tricks for the Google Home.

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