Make your Google Home smarter by assigning it to rooms in your house
Tell your Google Home speaker that it's in your master bedroom and you can control that room with simple commands.
When setting up a new Google Home speaker, there's a short list of things you should do first, such as changing the default music service, connecting supported smart home devices and setting up parental controls.
After that, you should take advantage of Google Home's latest setting by assigning your speakers to different rooms. Here's how and why you should.
Why you should assign Google Home speakers to rooms
We're assuming you have a few Google Home speakers and several smart home devices, like a smart light bulb or smart switch, throughout your house. You might already know that if you say, "OK, Google , turn on the lights," all of the connected smart lights in the house will turn on.
However, if you create a Room within the Google Home app and then assign a speaker, plus all of the lights and other smart home devices to that room, your speaker will be able to more intelligently decipher what you mean when you say, "Turn on the lights." It will only turn on the lights in that room unless you specify otherwise.
Creating a room will also allow you to say something like, "OK, Google, turn off everything in the bedroom," and all connected devices in the bedroom will power off.
Grouping everything into their respective rooms just gives you more precise control of your smart home without having to specifically name or address all those devices.
How to assign your Google Home speakers to specific rooms
Assigning devices to rooms is really quite simple.
- Just open the Google Home app on iOS or Android and tap the Devices icon (a picture of a TV with a speaker in front of it) in the top right corner.
- Tap the action overflow button (three horizontal dots) in the top right corner of one of the Google Home speakers in your account and select Settings.
- Scroll down and select Home control.
- All your speakers and Chromecast devices will be listed under Assistant.
- Tap any one of the speakers to edit it. You can change the name, set a nickname and change which room the speaker is in.
- If the room isn't correct, tap Room and select one of the preset rooms from the list or scroll to the bottom and select Add new room.
- Repeat this for all your Google Home speakers.
Once all your speakers have been assigned to a room, it's best to make sure all the smart home devices are all set to the correct rooms, too. In the Home control menu in the app, all of your connected smart home devices will be listed below their respective brand names.
If the device is assigned to a room, you'll see the room name directly under the device name. If it's unassigned, no room name will appear. Tap on the device name to edit, then tap Room to select which room the device is in.
Once your devices are assigned to a room, you'll no longer have to specify which devices you're talking about when you tell Google Home to turn on the lights or lock the door.
Now that you have your existing Google Home speakers assigned to rooms, it may be time to consider adding another smart speaker to your home.
Or consider these five ways your Google Home can help with your next BBQ.