- You can use Google Home as a speaker by pairing it with your smartphone or connecting it to your streaming music accounts.
- Once Once you’ve connected your Google Home, you can use it to listen to music, podcasts, radio shows, and more.
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Own a Google Home device? Do you have a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone or tablet or a music streaming account?
So you have a speaker out of the box (and easy to use), as well as the tools you need to control it.
Whereas one normally thinks of Google Home as a smart assistant out of the box to take orders and help manage your home, Google Home can also serve as a humble smart speaker, cranking out tunes in surprisingly good quality for such a compact device.
Here’s how you use your Google Home as speaker in two ways, whether you have an iPhone or Android device.
Check out the products mentioned in this article:
Google Home ( starting at $99.99 at Best Buy)
iPhone 11 (starting at $699.99 at Best Buy)
Samsung Galaxy S10 (starting at $599.99 at Best Buy)
How To using Google Home as a Bluetooth speaker
To use Google Home as a speaker, first put it in pairing mode. You can do this in two ways:
- Say, “OK Google, Bluetooth pairing.”
- Open the Google Home app on your smartphone, tap the Google Home device you want to pair, and then select “Paired Bluetooth devices.” In this menu, select “Enable pairing mode”.
Once you put your Google Home in pairing mode through any of these methods, you can connect it to your smartphone just like you would any other Bluetooth device.
So, on an iPhone:
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Select “Bluetooth” in the first set of options.
3. Give your iPhone a moment to search for devices, then select your Google Home (if you renamed it, it will appear with that name) in the “Other devices” section.
4 . The two devices will take a moment to pair. If they don’t connect, move the devices closer together.
And on an Android:
1. With two fingers, swipe down from the top of the screen.
2. Touch and hold the Bluetooth icon. If it’s not on this screen, swipe left to see all the quick access options and tap it there.
3. Give your Android device a moment to search for devices. Depending on the phone or tablet you have, you may need to tap a button that says “Pair new device” or “Search for devices”.
4. When your Google Home appears in the list of Bluetooth devices (if you’ve renamed it, it will appear with its new name), tap it.
5. The two devices will take a moment to pair. If they don’t connect, move the devices closer together.
Once you pair your devices, Google Home will act like any other Bluetooth speaker and play all the audio from your phone, whether it’s coming from YouTube, Spotify, Safari or another app.
How to use a Google Home as a speaker by connecting it to your streaming accounts
You can also connect your Google Home directly to one of your accounts music streaming; this includes services like Spotify, Pandora, Google Play Music and more.
When you set up your Google Home, you’ll usually be asked to sign in to all of your streaming accounts. But in case you haven’t or decided to skip that step, here’s what you can do.
1. Open the Google Home app.
2. On the home page, select “Settings”.
3. Under the “Rooms, groups and devices” heading, tap “Add…”
4. In the new menu, under the “Add Services” heading, you’ll see three options. Depending on the type of audio you want to listen to, select “Music & Audio”, “Videos & Photos”, or “Radio”.
5. On each screen, you’ll be presented with a list of streaming services your Google Home can connect to. Touch each one you want and sign in to your account, then confirm that you want to give your Google Home access to that service.
Once you’ve done this, you can use your Google Home as a speaker with just one command.
For example, you can say: “OK Google, play Spotify” to listen to music from Spotify. You can also be more specific, for example, “OK Google, play Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ on Spotify.”
Related coverage of How To Do Everything: Tech:
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How to set up any Google Home , Google’s versatile smart speaker, in just a few minutes
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How to use and customize the Google Assistant on your phone or Google Home
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‘How to reset any Google Home device to its factory settings, if it doesn’t work well or if you plan to sell it
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Yes, your Google Home can make phone calls : This is everything you need to know
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How to set up and use Google Home with your iPhone or Android device
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