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4 touch controls for the Google Home Mini you need to know

Google recently added some touch controls to its smallest smart speaker. Here's what you can do.

Jason Cipriani Contributing Writer, ZDNet
Jason Cipriani is based out of beautiful Colorado and has been covering mobile technology news and reviewing the latest gadgets for the last six years. His work can also be found on sister site CNET in the How To section, as well as across several more online publications.
Jason Cipriani
Chris Monroe/CNET

Shortly after the launch of the Google Home Mini , Google had to disable all touch controls due to an issue with the touch control on the top of the device constantly being triggered even when not touched.

Watch this: Watch Google Home Mini's new side touch function in action

A few weeks later, and Google is slowly adding touch controls back to the Home Mini, albeit in limited form. Here's what you can do:

  • To play, pause, stop music playback or end a phone call, long-press on either side of the Home Mini.
  • Stop a timer or alarm with a tap on either side of the device.
  • Tap the left side to decrease volume.
  • Tap the right side to increase volume.

Unfortunately, any sort of touch control on the top of the Home Mini is still missing. You will need to summon Google Assistant using your voice, instead of a long-press on the top of Home Mini as was originally intended.

If the long-press actions aren't working for you quite yet, be patient. An update is rolling out to all Google Home Mini devices to add the new touch controls.