The Google Home is able to connect to speakers it can’t control, but you’ll have to do some setup first. Basically, set your phone or computer’s music app to send sound out through the phone’s Bluetooth connection. Just make sure that both are on the same WiFi network before you begin.
Then open up mobile apps like Spotify or YouTube Music and look for the device options menu in the settings of each app. You should be able to select your Google Home device from here, which will allow all sound played by those apps on your phone or browser tab to come out through the Google Home instead of playing normally on your device’s own speakers.
You may need to disconnect the Home from your Google account and re-pair with it following through once or twice, but most people should have no trouble getting this up and running within a few minutes.
To use your Google Home as a speaker, first put it in pairing mode. To do this:
1) Open up your phone’s Settings and select Bluetooth. Make sure it is turned On . It should discover any nearby Bluetooth audio devices, including your Google Home. You may have to wait a moment as it looks for available devices.
2) Once it has completed scanning, tap on the “i” icon next to the Google Home device entry in order to see additional information about that device. Select Pair.
3) The phone should ask if you want to pair using only Bluetooth or make the connection more permanent by sharing other details like WiFi network and email address – you can choose either one here as it won’t matter for pairing purposes.
4) Lastly, give your phone a few moments to connect with Google Home. It should tell you that it is now connected and the connection status light on both devices will turn solid green once paired
To disconnect from Bluetooth, just go back into that device’s settings menu in Bluetooth and select “forget” or “unpair”. This will allow your phone to see your Google Home when it is back in listening mode so you can reconnect by simply tapping on its entry again.
Now that your Google Home is connected to your phone, you’ll need to tell the Google Assistant app on Android or the Google Home app on iOS which music source you want it to play from. To do this:
1) Open up either the Google Assistant app (on Android) or Google Home (on iOS), then tap on the menu in the top left corner of the screen and select Settings.
2) Select Preferences, then choose Media.
You should see two options here – Bluetooth Speaker and Speaker Bluetooth – make sure that only one of them is checked. If neither is checked, swipe right until you find an empty space where you can add a new preference item.
Check off the Speaker Bluetooth option by tapping on it. Once selected, you will be taken back to the preferences screen, where you should see additional details about your new preference setting.
If you do not see any change here, make sure you are signed in to the same Google account on both devices (i.e., phone and Google Home), then try re-syncing them by unplugging the power on your Google Home device for a few seconds, then plugging it back in while still within ~30 feet of your phone (to help speed up this process, try turning off Bluetooth on each device).
Now that you’ve selected Speaker Bluetooth as one of your media sources, whenever you play audio through an app like YouTube Music or Spotify on your mobile device while connected via Bluetooth the same WiFi network as your Google Home, those sounds should emit from the Google Home instead of your phone.
What’ Google Home not working well when paired to Bluetooth speaker?
Some users have reported that after using Google Home for playing music or podcasts in the background while using other apps on their phone, that sound stops coming out of the Google Home. They also find that instead of seeing the little blue “listening” light indicating it is ready to take commands like “OK Google”, you see a pinkish/purple “disconnected” indicator instead. If this happens, try restarting both your mobile device and Google Home (unplug the power from each for 5+ seconds).
This should resolve any issues with the sound stopping without warning – if not, then there may be something more complicated going on with how audio is handled between devices in your particular mobile app/phone, and you will need to either contact the app developers (e.g., YouTube Music support) or your phone manufacturer for assistance.
Read Also: Best Portable Bluetooth Speakers
How can I use Google Home to play Spotify tracks with no ads?
When the device is set up, make sure that you open up the official Spotify app on Android or iOS and sign into (or create an account if not already done). Then, follow these steps:
1) Open up the Google Home app and select “music” from the bottom menu
2) Press “link”, then link your account with Google Home by pressing “yes” when asked if you’re not currently signed into any music service accounts under Spotify’s preferences in settings on your mobile device
3) Go back to the main menu in Google Home, select Spotify, then login with your account
4) Finally, open up the official Spotify app on your mobile device and go to Library > My Music. At this point, you should see all of your songs available for playback through Google Home.
We hope that helps! Make sure to check out our help center for lots more useful information on using Google Home or Chromecast. If you have any questions or issues, please let us know in the comments below!
