How to set the volume for alarms and timers on Google Home
Now you can control alarm and timer volumes separately from the speaker's main volume control.
Earlier this month, Google added a much-needed feature to its Google Home speaker: volume controls specifically for alarms and timers.
Previously, all playback -- including music, responses and alarm tones -- from Google Home were the same volume. Now you can control alarms and timers independently. Here's how.
How to manage alarms in the Google Home app
To set an alarm or timer, you will still need to use your voice. Say something like:
- "OK, Google, set an alarm for [time]."
- "OK, Google, snooze alarm."
- "OK, Google, cancel my alarm for [time]."
- "OK, Google, set a timer for [time]."
- "OK, Google, how much time is left on my timer?"
You can use the Google Home app to adjust how loud your speaker alarm's sound will be.
Then to make adjustments to the sound of the alarm or the end of the timer, you will need to go into the settings for the speaker inside the Google Home app. To get to the settings for alarms and timers:
- Open the Google Home app on iOS or Android.
- Either tap the devices button (an image of a speaker in front of a television) in the upper right corner of the app or tap the hamburger button in the upper left corner to expand the left menu and tap Devices.
- Tap the action overflow button in the top right section of the card for your Google Home speaker and tap Settings.
- Under Device Info, select Alarms & timers.
From there, just drag the slider to where you want the volume to be for all timers and alarms.
Since alarms are device-specific, if you have more than one Google Home speaker, you will need to dig into the settings for each Google Home speaker to edit alarms across multiple devices.
Unfortunately, you still can't customize the alarm tone (unless you use this workaround, which will use the default playback volume and not the alarm volume). And the volume for all timers and alarms will be the same -- there's no way to individually set volumes for specific alarms.
Another benefit to having this menu is the ability to see all active timers and alarms. Sadly, you cannot edit or create new alarms or timers from within the app. That still has to be done using voice commands.
That said, at least you can see what alarms and timers are currently active, and you can delete them without having to listen to Google Home list them all out for you. Just tap the X to the right of an alarm or timer.
