Google Home’s speaker sounds pretty good, but the Home Mini is a little lacking. Now, you can pair any Home or Home Mini with a Bluetooth speaker for a better audio experience.
Adding a Bluetooth speaker to your Google Home is simple. Fire up the Google Home app, and then tap the devices button in the top right corner.
On the Devices page, tap the menu button (the three-dots) in the top right corner, and then choose the “Settings” command.
Scroll down, and then tap the “Paired Bluetooth Devices” option.
This opens the default speaker menu. To add a Bluetooth speaker, first make sure the speaker is in pairing mode. If you’re not sure how to do that, consult the website of your speaker’s manufacturer—most of the time, you’ll just long-press the Bluetooth button, though.
With the speaker itself in pairing mode, tap the “Pair Bluetooth Speaker” button on your phone. The Google Home app starts scanning for speakers; when it finds yours, tap it to pair.
When the devices are paired, Google Home sets this as its default speaker.
From that point forward, your Home should stay connected to the Bluetooth speaker and use it as the default audio device. Questions and other communications will still be handled through the Home device itself—so, for example, if you ask it to set a timer, that won’t happen through the newly-added Bluetooth speaker.
This is an awesome feature, because it almost allows you to add voice control to any Bluetooth speaker. Let’s say you have a single Home in the kitchen, but you want to control music in the living room. We all know how sensitive Home’s ears can be, so now you should be able to ask Home to play some tunes and poof—there it is on your paired Bluetooth speaker in the living room. You can also control the volume of the Bluetooth speaker by using the Home’s volume control—just like if the speaker were paired with a phone.
And if you have multiple Homes set up in a group, the same rule applies—your Bluetooth speaker continues to handle all the audio duties for the Home it’s paired to. Super solid.
