So you’ve dialed Google Home for Christmas. It’s amazing because it’s a killer little smart speaker that can do a lot of different things — in fact, it can be a little overwhelming. The good news is that we will provide for you. Here are some ideas on where to start your new home.
Customize Your New Google Home
First things first: you have to tweak this bad guy because he’s basically useless in the box. But before we get into that, I want to think a little about what constantly worries users when they get an always-listening device like the Google Home: it doesn’t follow everything you say. It only listens to the hot word («OK Google» or «Hey Google»), but that’s about it. Nothing is recorded or transmitted back to Google until he hears those words. I promise.
After that, let’s set up your new speaker. The first thing you need to do is connect your home and download the Google Home app for iOS or Android.
Launch it and read the manual — everything is quite simple. As soon as the phone finds a new home, it will notify you. If it detects other devices (such as smart bulbs or connectors), it will show them as well. Select a new home device and click Next. The new home device will then play a sound to make sure it is connected to the correct device and you will confirm.
From there, you’ll create a room and connect the Home to Wi-Fi. Once everything is connected, you’ll be logged into your Google account — assuming you’ve set up Google Assistant on your phone, your voice settings will automatically be imported. This is cool.
If this is your first time setting up Google Assistant, you can teach it to recognize your voice. If you have already set it up on another device, it can extract the voice model from there for you.
The Google Home app will then detect if you have certain music apps installed and offer to set them up for you. This is where I found myself using Spotify. It will then prompt you to set up video services.
Finally, you’ll have the option to specify where Home will be used, view all of your settings, and go through a quick guide to using Home.
With all the simple things aside, you are ready to present start using your new Google home.
Add another account
If you plan to share your home with someone else in the house (or even multiple people), you need to add everyone else’s Google account. Why? Because Google Assistant will be able to distinguish people by their voices, so it offers personalized results.
For example, if I tell my Google home page to add an event to my calendar, it will match my vote and only add it to my personal calendar, not my wife. It works the same for her.
To add a second (or third, fourth, etc.) account to an existing Google home page, the person you want to add will need to install the Home app on their phone. When they launch it and log in, it will look for new devices and you can just follow the setup procedure.
You can also add new members from your home app by going to Settings, selecting Household, and then clicking the plus button in the top right corner. You can then select one of your contacts or enter an email address manually.
For more information on how to add accounts to your Google home page, read this post.
RELATED:How to Add Multiple Google Accounts to Google Home
Get the tunes flowing
I mean Google Home — it’s a speaker, so using it for music is a pretty good thing. There are several ways to make your ringtones work with Home:
Get it off your phone
Play via Bluetooth
Say «Hey Google Play <музыка, которая вам нравится>»
Cool, right? Yes. But if you’ve taken the time to add multiple accounts to your home as described above, there are a few things you’ll want to take a look at.
First of all, each account can set their own preferences for the music service — Google Play Music, Pandora, YouTube Music, and Spotify are all supported, although you can only use one at a time. It’s a weird quirk, but alas, there’s nothing you can do.
To change your music preferences, open the Google Home app and tap the Settings button. On the Settings page, scroll down a bit and tap the Music option.
You will see a list of your music services as well as other options available.
RELATED:How to Use Someone Else’s Music Subscription on a Shared Google Page
But let’s say you have a premium Spotify account and others don’t. Actually you can let him/her use your account by selecting the last option here: «No default». This automatically plays all the music played in the other person’s settings. We have more information on how it works right here.
Set up your smart home
In addition to being a presenter, Google Home is essentially the hub of your entire smart home. If you have other smart devices like Philips Hue lights, Nest thermostats or cameras and the like, you can set them up in Google Home. You can even add a Chromecast and Android TV to your home for easy voice control.
When you open the Home app, a toolbar appears on the home screen that displays your rooms, treatments, Google Home devices, and other SmartHome devices you’ve set up. To add a new device, house member, speaker group, or even a new house, all you have to do is click the Add button and then choose what you want to add.
Just follow the steps to set up your stuff, and if you run into any hurdles, try our tutorial on setting up your smart home with Google Home.
RELATED:How to control smarthome devices with Google Home
Make phone calls using Google Home
Your Google Home can also become a pretty legitimate hands-free device — and it can do it without you ever having to touch your actual phone. Just say «Hey Google, call <человек или место>» and pif : As if by magic, it will ring the bell.
It’s also welcome because you can set it up to use an anonymous number, a Google Voice number (if you have one), or even your personal phone number. All of this can be configured in the Google Home app under More Options > Call Speakers.
For detailed setup instructions, check out our post.
RELATED:How to make phone calls using Google Home
Get cooking instructions, buy stuff and all sorts of other things
My «master» Google Home is in the kitchen, because that’s where I find it most useful. Get out? Listen to music. Bake something? Set a timer (you can also change the alarm volume). Cooking? Get step by step instructions without even touching your phone. Seriously, this is a game changer.
RELATED:How to submit recipes to Google Home for step by step instructions
Getting recipes is easy too: find what you want and then submit it to Google Home. We actually have a complete guide on how to get started, so if you need more detailed instructions, give it a try.
But wait, that’s not all! You can also tell your Google Home to buy something for you and that will happen. This is done using Google Express, but you will also need to set up shipping and payment options in the Google Home app. Detailed instructions can be found here if you want to take a closer look at how it all works.
RELATED:The best things Google Assistant can do on your Android phone
Of course, since your Google Home is basically just Google Assistant as a speaker, you can also do all the things you do with Assistant on your phone, like asking questions, getting daily briefings, keeping a shopping list, and much more.
If there’s a feature you want and can’t find, you can also set up custom commands with Android and Tasker. It’s not the easiest setup, but with time and patience, you can make it happen. Find out how by going here.
Google Home is incredibly powerful, and its functionality is expanding every day. Voice control is very natural and the more you use it the more you will be able to handle it.
