How to Add Multiple Google Accounts to Google Home

Google Home is designed to be a shared device that everyone in the home can use. Now Google has finally made it possible to recognize different people and provide personal information to anyone using their Google accounts. Here’s how to do it.

The Google Home multi-user feature is designed to work with as little fuss as possible. It uses voice training to learn how your voice sounds. It can then give you user information when you say things like «tell me about my day» or «what’s on my shopping list?». You can add up to six people to one Google Home so everyone in your family can share the same device. ,

Setting up multi-user mode from the main phone

To set it up, open the Google Home app and tap the device icon in the top right corner.

Scroll down the page to find your Google Home in the device list. Click on the blue banner that says «Multiplayer is now available.»

If you haven’t already done so, Google will begin the process to learn how to recognize your voice. Make sure you’re in the same room as Google Home and quiet so Google can record your voice.

Google will ask you to say «Ok Google» and «Hey Google» a couple of times to learn your voice samples. You can also retrain Google later if you find it doesn’t recognize your voice in the future.

Once the Google Home update is complete, you’ll see a rough list of commands you can use, which will be customized based on who’s speaking. For example, you can say «Ok Google, what’s my name?» and Google will tell you who you think. This is a good command to try when you add new users to make sure Google correctly identifies everyone in the house. Click Continue to continue.

Once you’re done, Google will invite others to do the same. Click the blue «Invite» button and send the link to your family members or roommates by choosing a chat app. They will be prompted to install the Google Home app and follow the same steps you just did.

Setting up multi-user from another phone

For some reason, the «Multiplayer Available» button may not be visible to everyone. In this case, you’ll want to set up multiplayer from the phone you want to add to your Google home page.

To do this, launch the Home app on that phone and log in. From there, click on the «Devices» button in the top right corner and find the Google Home you want to add.

The Voice Match screen will open and ask you to say «OK Google» and «Hey Google». Once you do that, you are done.

Ideally, this should mean that no one but you will be able to get information from your account, unless they can imitate your voice. Although in testing I confirmed that Google recognizes the recording of your voice to activate commands. Most of you probably won’t be so paranoid about your family trying to access your account information, but it’s still worth knowing about. Google prevents Google Home from accessing a lot of personal information that Google Assistant can access on other devices — like reading your email, reading reminders, or creating calendar events — for this very reason. However, this is the beginning of a wider use of Google Home for the whole family.