How to use Google Home

You’ve probably heard about “smart homes” and, chances are, you already have some smart devices. Maybe you got an Alexa or Google speaker as a present. They’re so cheap (Amazon regularly offers Alexa speakers for £20) that you might have several.

You’re probably not using them correctly — but don’t blame yourself. You don’t exactly get an instruction manual with them. They’re so cheap and so flexible that millions of them are lying in boxes or being seriously under-utilised.

This short article will explain how to make better use of them — or tempt you to take your smart device out of its box. Although it focuses on Google products, the principles apply to any device from Google, Amazon or Apple (the three main vendors).

What is a smart device?

What makes a device smart? Wi-fi, basically. And some program code so that the device can join your home network. Smart devices are part of the Internet of Things (IoT), which aims to make just about everything smart.

It’s important to understand that smart products from Google, Amazon and Apple are not compatible. In other words, you can’t mix and match Google, Amazon and Apple devices. Which is why you’ll see “Works with Alexa” (Amazon’s brand) or “Works with Google” (Google’s brand). What this really means is that the devices have code that lets them talk to Amazon or Google. In reality, something that works with Alexa will probably also work with Google Home. But, to be sure, you should check.

What sort of devices work with Google? The list is long, and getting longer. It includes speakers, displays, TVs, clocks, lights, plugs, thermostats, doorbells and cameras. If these products “Work with Google” then they will all be compatible and can be added to your Google smart home.

How do you use them?

So, you’ve got a couple of compatible products. What now? You’re first task is to let Google know about them. You won’t be surprised to learn that this is easy for Google products and not so easy for anything else. Let’s say you’ve got a Google Nest smart speaker and a compatible (but not Google) smart plug (in other words, it “Works with Google” but is not made by Google). Adding the Google smart speaker is simply a matter of opening the Google Home (“Home”) app and you will see the product waiting to be added to your home (once you switch it on). Non-Google products might also magically appear but sometimes you have to download and install a third-party custom app to set-up the device before Home will recognise it. Once Home “sees” the product, you add it to your home as you would a Google product (and the custom app can be removed since it’s not needed once the device can be “seen”).

The Home app is the key to controlling your smart home. If Home doesn’t see your device, it won’t work. So it’s vital that you check the device is seen in Home (new devices are shown clearly when you open the app). You can add the device to a specific room in your home — which is more useful than it sounds (as you’ll see). You can also give your device a name. So, if you really want to call your light bulb “Susie” you can.

Once Home knows about your device and you’ve added it to a room, you can talk to the device using Google Assistant (by talking to your smart speaker, smart screen or smartphone). “OK Google. Turn on Susie.” will turn on your light. “OK Google. Play I did it my way.” will summon Mr Sinatra. If you’ve added a couple of light bulbs to your bedroom, you can say “OK Google. Turn on the bedroom lights” (which is why adding devices to specific rooms is a good idea).

Confused? The difference between Google Home, Google Assistant and custom apps is enough for many people to keep their devices in their boxes. Fortunately, that’s as difficult as it gets. And, remember, if you needed to install a custom app, it can be removed once the device is added to Home.

What can you do with them?

Once your devices are set-up, you run into another problem. The damn things do so much that you don’t know where to start. My entirely non-scientific hunch is that most people don’t use them properly. That’s a pity because they’re seriously useful once they’re set-up correctly. Let’s explore some of their best uses.

1. Asking questions. Most people know that you can ask your smart speaker or smart screen questions. What sort of questions? Just about anything that has an unambiguous answer. “What’s the weather today?”. “When is it going to rain?”. “What is 17% of £250?”. “When is the next bus to Glasgow?”. “How long will it take to drive to Edinburgh?”. “When is the next full Moon?”.
2. Setting alarms, timers, reminders and events. If your smart speaker/screen is located in your kitchen or bedroom then timers and alarms are useful. “Set a 20 minute timer”. “Set another timer for 30 minutes”. “Set an alarm for 7am”. “Remind me to get Colin a birthday card”. “Add an event to my calendar”.
3. Playing music and podcasts. Another common use is to listen to music. If you have an appropriate subscription (to Google Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music) then you have unlimited choice. If you don’t have a subscription then you’ll have to put up with ads. Not every music service works with every platform. For example, Google devices work with Google Music (obviously) and Spotify, but don’t work with Amazon Music and Apple Music. If you don’t have a compatible subscription you can still listen to music but you’ll have to listen to (frequent) ads. You can also listen to podcasts by saying “Play the Guardian Science podcast” (you do have to know the name of the podcast).
4. Controlling devices. Once you’ve setup plugs, lights, thermostats and robo-vacs , you can control them by talking to them. The first time you say “Vaccuum my floor” is a thrill (assuming you have a robo-vac). It’s best to give them sensible names during setup. If your smart lightbulb is called “TP-Link-Kasa001”, rename it to something like “Kitchen lamp”, which will allow you to say “Turn on the kitchen lamp”. If you’ve added devices to specific rooms then saying “Turn off the bedroom lights” will switch off every light in your bedroom.
5. Listening to radio. Your smart speaker is also capable of streaming radio stations. And not just your local radio stations. You can listen to any radio station in the world. “Play Radio Scotland” summons my local service. But if you have an urge to listen to South Africa’s Bok Radio, you can.

That covers the basics. If you use your smart devices for getting information, setting timers and alarms, listening to music and podcasts, playing the radio, and controlling switches and lights then you’re doing OK.

Advanced uses

Your smart devices can do more. Here are some additional things you can do with your smart devices.

1. Listening to audiobooks. If you’ve bought audiobooks you can listen to them on your smart speaker. “Read my book called The Planets” will start the book with that name (“The Planets”). “Read my book” will continue from where you left off (you don’t need to repeat the name of the book). Once again, this depends where you bought the books. Books bought on Play Books (the Google service) play nicely with Google, and books bought on Audible play nicely with Alexa — but you can’t mix and match. If you’ve never had the pleasure of falling asleep to a vivid description of the moons around Jupiter (say “Read my book for 30 minutes” while lying in bed), you’re missing one of life’s great pleasures.
2. Creating speaker groups. Not so long ago creating a “full home” audio system cost a small fortune. Nowadays you can equip four rooms with synchronised sound for not much more than £100. It’s straight-forward to create groups using the Home app. Look for “Create speaker group” and create as many groups as you like. It’s a good idea to create a group that includes all your smart speakers (call it something like “All speakers”) so you can say “Play Madonna on all speakers”. But you can also create groups for upstairs speakers or any combination you like.
3. Home security. You can buy (smart) security cameras but the Nest Hub and Nest Doorbell can also work as security cameras. The Nest Doorbell can alert you when someone approaches your front door and the Nest Hub can alert you when anyone appears inside your home (within viewing distance of its built-in camera). These can be set to turn on (or off) whenever you leave (or arrive) home. If you have both (the doorbell and the hub) your home is pretty secure without actually purchasing security equipment. They might not stop criminals (although they’re likely to deter them) but you’ll be sent an alert (on your phone) and they’ll be caught on camera if they try.
4. Google Podcasts. This is the only thing in this article that’s unique to Google. The podcast feature works particularly well with Google Podcasts (the app by that name for your phone). If you create a playlist using Google Podcasts, you can say “Continue my podcasts” and your smart speaker will pick up from where you stopped listening on your playlist. This even works when you’ve listened to part of the podcast on your phone and want to complete it on your speaker (and vice-versa — it will continue playing on your phone after you listen on your speaker). “Play the next podcast” will skip to the next podcast on your playlist. You have to create (and order) the playlist in Google Podcasts but, once you do, it makes listening to your favourite podcasts very easy. As far as I know, this only works with Google smart speakers and Google Podcasts.
5. Automating routines. Google uses “routines” to combine several actions into one. In fact, the Home app comes with some built-in routines such as “Home” and “Away”, which automatically sense if you’re at home or away from home (they use presence-sensing). You can use the “away” routine to switch off plugs and lights, and turn down the heating when you leave home (and the “home” routine to do the opposite when you return). You can also create your own routines. I have a “Good night” routine that switches on my bedroom lights, switches off all of the other lights, turns off plugs, tells me the next day’s weather and any events in my diary, and asks me to set a morning alarm. You can create custom routines to do any combination of things that you like.

Twenty years ago this would be science fiction. Today you can create a smart home for a few hundred pounds (you can start with £20 for a speaker) — and take your smart home with you should you ever move house.