Google Home Mini User manual

Introducing Google Home

Learn all about your new smart device and how

the Google Assistant can help you

Setup guide

Set up and conﬁgure your Google Home or

Google Home Mini

Your My Day brieﬁng

Teach your Google Home what content you

want to hear updates about every day

Cast media

Take advantage of Google Cast and get your

Home to send media to your TV and speakers

Control your smart home

Use Google Home as the hub of your connected

home and control lights, heating and more

Add more functions

Use IFTTT functionality to create and automate

command routines

Explore apps

Explore some of the wealth of apps and games

available for Google Home

“OK

Google,

how

do I...?”

The Complete Manual

Google

Home

9000

9001

NEW

The Complete Manual

The independent handbook for Google Home users

Master

essential

commands

& more

Google

Home

100% UNOFFICIAL

Digital

Edition

FIRST

EDITION

Our homes are getting smarter. And who better to help us take advantage

of this than the search engine we turn to with all of our queries? The Google

Home is a revolutionary product in the same vein as the Amazon Echo and

Apple HomePod. Where it diﬀers is in its ability to leverage Google’s awesome

powers of search, making it easy for it to answer any query you have, from

news to weather to traﬃc and travel, in real time. In addition to that, it can take

advantage of Google Cast technology to serve up music and video to your

TV or stereo, function as the connected hub of your smart home, play audio-

based games with you, and much more. The ability to install a wide range of

apps makes its uses almost limitless. Read on to ﬁnd out more...

Welcome to

The Complete Manual

Google

Home

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The Complete Manual

Google

Home

6

Introduction

24

Set up My Day

Get a quick snapshot of the

news, weather and more

26 Get the news

Get the Google Assistant to

read you news feeds

28 Get the weather

Ask Google Assistant about

the weather for the day

30 Get sports news

Stay up to date on your

favourite teams

32 Set up Calendars

Get Google Home to tell you

what you have planned

34 Use reminders

Get Google Home to remind

you about important events

36 Set timers and alarms

Set multiple timers and wake

up to alarms

38 Create shopping lists

Create shopping lists and add

items to them

40 Get traffic updates

Know which roads to avoid

on the way to work

42 Find local businesses

Looking for a restaurant or

shop? Ask Google Home

08 Introducing

Google Home

The Google Home voice-

controlled smart speaker

helps you make the most

of Google Assistant, using

only your voice

How to...

Contents

What you can ﬁnd inside the bookazine

22 Talk to Home

Ask questions, issue

commands and more

using just your voice

16 Set up your

Google Home

The Google Home is a

powerful device, but its

not complicated to set

up, especially with

our instructions

68 Multiroom Audio

Get the same music playing

concurrently across rooms

70 Watch TV

Google Home can become

a TV remote

72 View photos

Showcase your snaps in a

voice-controlled slideshow

74 Make your home smart

Use Google Home as the hub

of your smart house setup

78 Introducing IFTTT

Create custom actions for

your Google Home

82 Fix 10 common problems

Essential solutions to your

Google Home issues

86 Top 50 easter eggs

Amuse and entertain fwith

these hidden functions

88 Add apps

Make your Google Home do

even more with added apps

44 Google shop

Make the most of your shop

with Google Home

46 Stock market

Keep an eye on the markets,

stocks and shares

47 Find your parked car

Record the location of your

car and get Google to tell you

48 Check flights

Google Home can tell you

about your booked flights

50 Protect your privacy

Lock down your settings and

keep your data safe

52 Link and unlink accounts

Set up multiple Google users

on your Google Home

54 Enable Guest Mode

Allow visiting friends to cast

through your Google Home

56 Relax with Google Home

Get your Google Home

58 Use Google Cast

Cast media to your devices

through Google Home

60 Media playback

Play media on your

Google Home or

other devices

64 Listen to

the radio

Listen to

commercial or

web radio through

Google Home

66 Pair Bluetooth

speakers

Boost your music

experience by

adding Bluetooth

speakers

7

Apps

Enhance your Google

Home with a range of

apps, from news and sport

to fun for all the family

Page 90

Introducing…

8

Google Home

The Google Home is a voice-controlled smart speaker, powered

by Google Assistant, which enables owners to use a wide

range of Google and third-party services. Originally released in

mid-2016, Google Home has a growing number of integrations

with many diﬀerent types of services and products including

music, video, news, weather, games and home automation.

Updates are released frequently by Google ‘over the air’ and

install transparently, adding new features and improvements

to enhance the abilities of the Home device. Several diﬀerent

Google Home devices are available including the original unit

(simply ‘Google Home’), a smaller version called the ‘Google

Home Mini’, a larger ‘Google Home Max’ that focuses on

excellent audio quality and models featuring screens, called

‘Google Smart Displays’. Google has designed the range to ﬁt

in in the home, not to look like technology showcases, with

neutral colours, curved edges and neatly designed power

cables. Each of the units oﬀers a degree of customisation, either

with multiple colour purchase options or removable coloured

speaker mesh. The products are designed to compete with

the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Show from Amazon, which oﬀer

similar functionality but without the rich knowledge that comes

from being powered by the world’s favourite search engine and

its advanced ‘knowledge graph’.

The original Google Home product has a touch sensitive

panel on the top which is used to control volume, play and

pause modes. Google’s signature coloured lights illuminate

when the Google Home hears its wake word (‘Hey Google’

Introducing

Google Home

The Google Home voice-controlled smart

speaker helps you make the most of Google

Assistant, using only your voice

Introducing…

9

Google Home

Introducing…

10

Google Home

by default). Also on the top of the device are the two far-ﬁeld

microphones. Despite having fewer microphones than the six

on the Amazon Echo, the Google Home is still great at hearing

commands, even when music is playing or in a loud environment.

Of course, in order for Google Home to respond to commands,

it has to be always listening. A mute button is on the back of the

device if you are concerned about privacy and you can review your

Google Home’s activity online at the Google website at any time.

The Google Home Mini comes at less than half the price of

the full-size Google Home, but still packs a punch! The speaker

is incredible for its size, easily outperforming the Echo Dot, but it

won’t ﬁll a room in quite the same way as the regular Home. The

touch controls remain, but on the Mini they require small taps on

the left or right of the fabric top to lower or raise the volume, rather

than the circular motion needed on the Google Home. Google’s

signature coloured lights are again present, as is a physical mute

switch on the back. The Mini is just as good at hearing your voice

as the full-size home as it has the same microphone setup. If you

plan to use your Mini for music playback, you can link it to another

speaker if it supports the Cast protocol, but unlike on its arch rival,

the Echo Dot, there’s no 3.5mm output for a physical audio link.

Above: Google Home is larger, but still subtle.

The colourways on the speaker grille can be

switched out to blend into your room

The Google Home Mini in particular

is designed to sit unobtrusively

amid the rest of your decor

Introducing…

11

Google Home

The Google Home Max shares the Mini design language but it’s

big, brash and unashamedly loud. It’s not cheap and is very heavy,

but it’s all about the audio quality. It has four drivers (two woofers

and two tweeters), the ability to automatically tune its settings to

suit your room (it even detects when you’ve moved it around), six

microphones this time round to help it hear over the booming

audio, a 3.5mm input and a USB-C port for Ethernet connectivity.

Size and power aside, the experience is largely as it is for any other

Google Home device, with touch controls and the same mute

switch once again. Two Home Max devices can be paired to give

powerful stereo audio.

Google Smart Displays respond to commands in the same way

as a Google Home device, but also have a screen for watching

content and for making video calls. They are still in their infancy,

but the ability to build visual content into Google Assistant apps

will increase their utility, with launch applications including viewing

footage from a Nest camera; watching step by step cooking

directions; or viewing a map with directions. A key launch feature is

integration with YouTube and the YouTube TV service.

What Google doesn’t oﬀer is a portable Google Home product

in the style of the battery-powered Amazon Echo Tap. It’s likely that

third-party Google Assistant enabled speakers will emerge to meet

this need in the same way that Assistant-powered headphones are

now available on the market. By providing the underlying platform

and allowing other manufacturers to integrate it into their products,

Google can ensure there’s a Home or Assistant to suit everyone.

Owners of multiple Google Home devices throughout the

home can take advantage of synchronised music playback similar

to that oﬀered by the Sonos range of devices. The Home range

make fantastic media playback devices thanks to their support for

the open Google Cast protocol, which is now included in most

media apps on Android as well as in the Chrome browser. While

supporting Google Cast natively, Google Home devices can be

The Google Home Mini comes at less

than half the price of the full-size Google

Home, but still packs a punch!

Listen to music

One of the most used aspects

of Google Home… Whether it’s

from Google Play Music, Spotify

or even the radio, Google Home

makes listening easy.

Smart Home control

Google Home connects to a wide

range of Smart Home products,

allowing you to set your heating,

hot water, power devices on and

off and control smart lighting.

Use Google Assistant

If you can ask Google Assistant,

you can ask Google Home.

Weather, sports scores or just

general knowledge, Google’s

knowledge is always on tap.

Get more from Google

Introducing…

12

Google Home

Google Home compatible devices

Nest Thermostat

The Nest Thermostat provides a

connected way to control the heating

and hot water in your home. Not only can

it be controlled from your Google Home

device, it learns your usage too.

Price: £279 (installed)

Web: nest.com/uk/thermostats/nest-

learning-thermostat/overview/

Neato Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Setting off the Robot Vacuum Cleaner while sitting in your

chair with a cup of tea has to be living the dream. The Neato

range enables exactly this, with full voice control.

Price: £599.99 (Botvac D5)

Web: www.neatorobotics.com/robot-vacuum/botvac-

connected-series/

Samsung SmartThings

Samsung SmartThings is a hub for your Smart

Home devices. It supports a vast range of Z-Wave

and Zigbee devices, including Samsung’s own,

centralising control of your Smart Home technology.

Price: £199.99 (starter kit)

Web: www.samsung.com/uk/smartthings/

Logitech Harmony

The Harmony is an all-in-one remote taken

to the next level. As well as controlling all

your devices from a single remote, Harmony

actions can be launched using Google Home.

Price: £229 (Harmony 950)

Web: www.logitech.

com/en-gb/

harmony-

universal-

remotes

Nvidia Shield

The Nvidia Shield is the perfect

companion to your Google Home device,

providing the ability to cast audio to

the Google Home and play, pause, fast-

forward or adjust the volume on your TV.

Price: £179.99 (remote only version)

Web: www.nvidia.co.uk/

shield/shield-tv/

Philips Hue

Philips Hue allows you to

control your lighting from

your Google Home – not just

whether the lights are on

and off but the colour too,

individually or in groups.

Price: £149.99 (colour

starter kit)

Web: www.meethue.com/

en-gb

Introducing…

13

Google Home

used as a media controller themselves when

paired with a Chromecast, Chromecast Audio or

Android TV device such as the Nvidia Shield. A

request to cast a YouTube video to the TV, pause

and resume works well and similar commands

can be used to display your Google Photos

library on the screen. Another neat feature for

the multiple Home equipped household is the

ability to ‘Broadcast’. Provided you have two or

more Home devices on the same Wi-Fi network,

you can dictate a message to play on all devices.

You can also do this using your Assistant-enabled

phone – perfect for if you need to call the kids

down for dinner!

Google Home works well in a busy household,

with support for up to six users recognised by

their voice. This functionality allows the content

returned by the device to be tailored to the user

and any reminders to be added to the correct

account. This is handy when you have reminders

you don’t want everyone to hear, and particularly

useful if playing music – you won’t end up with

the whole family’s eclectic music preferences on

your treasured Google Music account!

While the Google Home range will be used

mostly for music playback, you’d be barely

scratching the surface of the device. Google

Assistant integrates with a wide range of Smart

Home services including Nest, SmartThings,

Hue and Hive with many more supported via

the third-party service IFTTT (‘If This Then That’).

Google attempts to surface popular ‘actions’

(the Google equivalent of ‘skills’ on Alexa) for

Google Home devices within the Home app and

also provides a website where a full list can be

browsed, broken down by category, or searched.

Actions can also be rated, making it easier to see

at a glance which are worth trying out. If you lose

your phone, you can also use Google Home to

track it down! Asking Google to ‘ﬁnd my phone’

uses Android’s own ﬁnd my phone feature (yes,

Android only) to make it ring loudly to help you

locate it. Using Home’s voice identiﬁcation, it will

automatically ring the right person’s phone too.

Google Home is much

smaller than its rival

smart speakers from

Amazon and Apple

Introducing…

14

Google Home

And following a recent update, you can now

make calls using your Google Home. Calls to both

mobiles and landlines are completely free, with

the exception of international calls. All you need

to do to make a call is ensure that the person you

want to speak to is set up in Google Contacts,

then ask Google to give them a call. Easy!

Interacting with the Google Home is natural,

as it has support for contextual conversation ﬂows

(such as ‘What’s the weather going to be today?’

followed by ‘And tomorrow?’) and can mine

the vast Google knowledge graph for answers.

Questions have less need to be speciﬁc in

structure than on rival products; commands such

as ‘How old is this celebrity, ‘How far is this place’

or ‘Tell me the score in the football’ work when

phrased in diﬀerent ways.

Google Home products are set up and

conﬁgured using a Google account and the

Google Home app, which is available from the

Play Store for Android devices and the App Store

for iOS. This is used to connect the device to

your Wi-Fi network, train diﬀerent voices, change

settings and install applications. As Google

Home is powered by Google Assistant, when

applications are added they work not only on the

Home products, but on other Assistant-powered

devices too such as phones, tablets and even

Android Auto-enabled cars.

Google Home devices are fun to use and they

contain some clever little easter eggs hidden

away. Try ‘Hey Google, make me a sandwich’

or ‘Hey Google, what did my cat say?’ There are

loads more hidden away too! If you’re looking for

a Google Home action to impress your friends,

one of our favourites is Akinator. A spin on the

classic ’20 questions’ game, Akinator prompts you

to think of a person, real or ﬁctional, which it will

then try and guess using a series of questions. Get

started by saying ‘Hey Google, Play Akinator’.

Google Home products

are set up and conﬁgured

using a Google account

Introducing…

15

Google Home

Apps

TuneIn: TuneIn provides the ability to

listen to radio on your Google Home.

You can request your station by name

or frequency as well.

BBC News: The BBC app provides an

extra news source for Google Home.

Asking to ‘listen to the news’ will

include the latest BBC headlines.

IFTTT: The IFTTT allows customisation

of Google Home by enabling you to

alter custom voice actions for a range

of third party services.

Sky Sports: The Sky Sports app works

in a similar way to the BBC, adding the

latest updates from the Sky Sports

News HQ channel to your sources.

Recipes by Course: Google’s culinary

offering allows you to retrieve step

by step recipe instructions using your

Google Home.

Routine Machine: Get fit with the

Routine Machine and Google. The

app will generate a bespoke exercise

regime based on your request.

Trainline: The Trainline app allows you

to plan your journey and check train

times. It also includes the ability to add

a regular commute for quick access.

Shopping List: You can add items to

the list from your Google Home and

retrieve them on your phone when at

the supermarket – so useful!

Lucky Trivia: Lucky Trivia provides

a fun trivia game for up to 5 players

directly on your Google Home device

– fun for all kinds of parties and ages.

Interacting with the Google Home is natural, as it has

support for contextual conversation ﬂows

Set up your Google Home

Power jack

Located at the back of

the device is a micro

USB input to power it

LEDs

Four LED lights change

colour and pulse to

indicate what it is doing

Volume

controls

Adjust the Mini’s

volume by tapping

on either side of

the device

Colours

The Google Home

Mini comes in three

colours: Chalk,

Charcoal and Coral

Touch surface

Control the device by

tapping, pressing or

swiping on this

Speakers and

microphones

The Google Home has two

microphones as well as one driver

and two passive radiator speakers

Mute

button

Stop the Home

from listening

by tapping the

button located

at the back

LED Ring

This will light

up differently

depending on

what the Google

Home is doing

Set up your

Google Home

The Google Home is a powerful device, but its not

complicated to set up, especially with our instructions

How to...

16

Set up your Google Home

1 Check you have everything you’ll need

Before you get started, check that you have everything you need to get the

device running. You will need the Google Home or Google Home Mini and the

power supply, which is located under a compartment in the box. You will also

need a phone or tablet for the software part of the setup. Both Android and iOS

devices support the Google Home app.

3 Plug in the device

Now that we have the software we need, it’s time to get the hardware itself

set up. Take the Google Home and turn it upside down to find the power jack

input. Take the power adaptor that came packaged with the device and plug

it into the port, then take the other end of the cable and plug it into your wall.

Your Google Home should now have power.

5 Open the app

Now you’re going to need to open the Google Home app that you

downloaded earlier. Once the app is open, tap on ‘Get Started’ in the bottom-

left corner of the screen. You will be asked to select the Google account that

you would like to use and then the app will search for any available devices., ie

your Google Home.

2 Download the Google Home app

All of the settings and controls during the setup process are carried out through

the Google Home app, so you’ll need to download it to your phone or tablet.

Go into the app store on your device. On iOS this is the App Store and on

Android devices it is the Google Play Store. Once in the store, search for Google

Home and when you’ve found the correct app, download and install it.

4 Wait

Once the Google Home is plugged in and has power you will have to wait a

couple of seconds for it to be ready. The Google Assistant will tell you when it

is ready and ask you to download the Google Home app (which you should

already have). The LEDs on top of the device will slowly pulse white to let you

know that it is waiting to be set up.

6 Select your device

Once it has found a Google Home it will ask you if you would like to set up this

device; press ‘Yes.’ Your smartphone or tablet may disconnect from your Wi-Fi

router during this step as it will be trying to connect to the Google Home’s

network. After the app has linked to the Google Home, your device will make a

noise. The app will ask you if you have heard this, tap ‘Yes’ if you could hear it.

Fig 1 The app from the Google Play store

Fig 2 The app’s ‘Get Started’ page

Fig 3 Select the device’s location

Fig 4 Select your Wi-Fi network from the list

If anything goes wrong,

don’t be afraid to reset the

device. Simply unplug the

device and restart the app

How to...

17

7 Select a room

The Google Home app will now ask you where in the house you will be placing

the device. You can select from the list of rooms provided or create your own.

This will come in handy if you plan on adding more devices in the future as your

Google Home in the living room will be known as ‘living room speaker’ to make

it easier to recognise, as opposed to giving individual gadgets nicknames.

9 Voice Match

You will be asked if you would like to teach Google Assistant to recognise your

voice. You may want to use this if you plan on having personal data such as

calendars, emails and more but don’t want the other users in the house to

access the information. Google does warn however that this system isn’t perfect

and someone with a similar voice may be able to access it.

11 Music service

If you have a subscription to Spotify, Google Play Music, Deezer or YouTube

Music you can link your account to stream music through that service. Tap

on the plus icon and fill in the appropriate information to link the account

and then tap ‘Continue’. Google will then ask you if you would like to receive

information via email about the latest features for Google Home and Assistant.

8 Wi-Fi settings

You will now be taken to a page where you select your Wi-Fi network. It will list

all available networks to you. The network your phone or tablet is connected to

will be highlighted in blue; you can select next to use the same network you’re

already on and you won’t need to input a password. There is also an option to

use this network for all future devices.

10 Your address

Google Home will ask you for your home address. The text box will initially

appear blank but Google will perform a quick search and enter an address

based on your Wi-Fi network. As you type an address Google will make

suggestions. You can enter a postcode, road or city depending on how

accurate you want the information.

12 You’re done

You will be shown all of the information you have entered for you to review.

If there are any mistakes, tap on them to change, but if it’s all good tap on

‘Continue’. The Google Home app will then begin a tutorial, displaying a

number of basic commands for you to try. Scroll through these and tap

‘Finished’. Congratulations, your Google Home is set up and ready to go.

You can make changes to

the settings later by going

to the ‘Devices’ section of

the Google home app

Fig 5

Teach it to recognise your voice

Fig 6 Input your Home’s address

Fig 7 Review the information before you finish

Fig 8 The tutorial’s opening screen

How to... Set up your Google Home

18

Pinpoint your location

For you to be able to receive customised traﬃc reports, weather updates,

local business information and many other useful services, you will need

to set up your address in the Google Home app. Tap on the menu icon,

select ‘More settings’ and under the Devices tab select ‘Device address.’

Enter your address and when you are done tap on OK.

You can enter a postcode, road or

city depending on how accurate you

want the address information to be

How to... Set up your Google Home

19

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