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How to

How to Use Multiple Google Smart Speakers in One Home

Posted on by sales
22
Oct

Getting started with setting up multiple Google Home devices is a breeze. You can mix and match the smart home speakers too, meaning you can opt for a Google Home Mini in the bedroom and a full-sized Google Home Max in the living room or just a multitude of Minis dotted around the house. The choice is yours.

Start by downloading the Google Home app for your mobile device (if you haven’t already), while meanwhile making sure your Google Home devices are plugged in and turned on.

Once that’s done, open the app and tap “get started” – you’ll then be able to follow the instructions within the app to set up the speakers and connect them to your account

Repeat the process until all the devices are attached to your account and up and running. Then the real fun begins.

Communicating between rooms with broadcast

One of the joys of the Google Home system is the ability to broadcast messages across devices in the home. This means that you can send voice messages from one of the smart speakers to all the other Google Home devices. It’s really as simple as saying “OK Google, broadcast…” followed by the message you want to send.

This functionality records a snippet of your voice which is then replayed on other the other devices around the house. It’s worth noting that if people aren’t expecting to hear the message they might be taken off guard, so it’s worth ensuring you grab their attention first. “OK Google, broadcast listen up everyone, it’s time for dinner” is bound to get feet dashing to the dinner table.

Controlling one Google Home device with another

Within the Google Home app, it is possible to name your speakers to whatever you choose to help you to identify them. To do this:

  1. Open the Google Home app.
  2. Click on the person profile icon in the bottom right
  3. Click on “local devices”
  4. Click on the relevant device
  5. Click the cog to access the settings
  6. Then find “name” and set an appropriate device name.

Doing this offers you more benefits than just being able to easily identify each speaker within the app. Some commands to Google can then be used to control one Google Home device from another.  For example, in the kitchen saying “OK Google, play a relaxing playlist on my living room speaker” would do just that.

Setting up groups for multi-room audio

If you’re interested in having music thumping throughout your house, then the good news is Google Home devices are capable of that too. All it requires is a few setup steps and you’re away.

From, the app’s homepage follow these steps to create the group:

  1. Click the add symbol
  2. Click “create speaker group”
  3. Select the Google Home speakers you want to include then pick a logical name for the group

Once that’s done, you’re then ready to cast audio to the speakers in that group. Multi-room music playback supports Spotify, TuneIn Radio and Google Play Music, so all you need to do is say “OK Google, play my party playlist downstairs” to get the tunes thumping (replace “party playlist” and “downstairs” with the name of your song/playlist and group name respectively).

Enabling multi-user support and family controls

With multiple Google Home devices around the house, it’s reasonable to assume that you’ll have several people with access to them. Google Home is capable of supporting multiple users with a few simple setup steps.

  1. Click on “add” on the homepage of the Google Home app
  2. Click “invite home member”
  3. Input their email address
  4. Read what’s shared including all the devices and submit

Setting up multiple user support ensures that day briefings, calendars and even playlists are properly synced and all members of the household get the results they’re expecting when talking to Google. This functionality doesn’t require multiple Google Home devices, but it’s certainly worth setting up if you do have a few.

Voice matching for music streaming

The added benefit of adding multiple users is each member of the household can use voice matching to request music from their own preferred music streaming service. Theoretically, this means people will no longer ruin your Spotify playlists with their unwanted tunes.

Follow the steps above to invite each member to the household, then click “add” on the homepage of the app, to find “music and audio” settings. From there you can then select your preferred music service. Get each member of the home to do the same and link their own account.

It’s also worth getting each person to set up voice match properly to train Google Assistant to recognise the different voices in the home.

To do this:

  1. Click the account/profile section from the homepage of the app
  2. Under “general settings” click on “settings”
  3. Click on the “assistant” tab
  4. Click voice match to teach Google Assistant your voice and invite others to do the same

From there you’ll also see which devices are included and are capable of recognising your voice. Then as long as the voice is recognised, the right account will be used for each person in the home, giving a much more personal experience.

A similar process allows you to do the same for Netflix too, which ensures everyone’s watching and listening to their favourite content without messing up other people’s profiles.

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