

Once something's playing, open up the controls to make adjustments. Just pick a song, playlist or channel you want to hear from any one of your linked music services with a command like " Hey, Google, play on. It doesn't matter which speaker you're near or if you'll want to keep playing through it - you can change that in a minute. The best way to get some tunes going is with a voice command. Start music with a voice command, then fiddle with controls in the app There's a much better way to kick things off, so keep reading. Bob Marley followed by Miles Davis, Mozart and Carol of the Bells can get a little disorienting. Second, it seems to only be able to play a random selection of songs I've listened to before, which would be fine, I guess, if I didn't listen to an array of genres that includes reggae, jazz, classical, grunge and, lately, holiday music. I, however, have three different services linked to Google Home: YouTube Music (my default), Pandora and SiriusXM. First, you can only play from your preferred music service, which for many people might be all they use. If nothing is playing on any of your speakers, you can technically get the party started from the control panel within the Google Home app itself, but you're extremely limited in what you can play. You can start playing music in the app, but don't Create group opens the page where you can create and save a specific speaker group.Īs you move from room to room, you can bring different speakers in and out of the mix without pausing the music, thanks to the Google Home app's new media controls. The oval buttons labeled Music, Video and Radio will take you to the settings for those categories (where you can link services, choose defaults and, under Video, link Google Photos). At the end of the list an option to Stop the music will appear when music's playing.Īfter all the device names, you'll see a list of speaker groups (if you've created any) and, at the very bottom of the screen, there's a menu labeled Manage your system. You may need to tap More devices in the lower right corner if you have a big enough collection (like mine - currently, eight). This will open a screen with either the current track (if you're already jamming) or the logo for your default music service at the top, followed by a list of your devices with small circular buttons for selecting turning them on or off. It should be grouped with similar (but differently colored) buttons for Lights, Broadcast, Routines and possibly some others.

To get to the new media controls, open the Google Home app and tap the green circular button near the top of the screen labeled Media. The Google Home app's new media controls make it easier to play music simultaneously from two devices in the same room, too. Here's how I've been following the music - and having the music follow me - with Google Home's new media control interface. The new control panel is fairly simple and intuitive, but there are a few ways to use it that work better than others, as well as a couple of pitfalls you'll want to watch out for. With these new media controls, rocking out while navigating my townhouse - with its office on the first floor, kitchen and living spaces on the second and sleeping quarters on the third - just got a whole lot easier. You can also bring speakers in or out of the mix on the fly, while music or other audio keeps on playing.
#Google play can i download single songs update#
The new update introduces streamlined media controls that let you spontaneously create a speaker group without having to go into the settings menu. Thankfully, that all changed with version 2.31 of the Google Home app. Up until now, however, getting all those speakers to sync up has been a frustrating process - never mind trying to add or delete speakers from a group once it's been created.

One of the features I value most about Google Home is its ability to string together two, three or even a couple dozen smart speakers so I can blast music throughout my whole house. Lots of people have multiple Google Home and Nest smart speakers in their houses, and the Google Home app's new media controls help keep them organized.
