Google has now officially announced several new Google Home features for music lovers across various regions of the world, though exact regions where each feature is available will vary. Among the new features are a few that have already been included for some users over the past several days, but which the company hadn’t yet confirmed. Aside from the previously reported support for free Spotify accounts, which is rolling out this week to users in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, and Germany, the company also confirmed that Bluetooth support will be rolling out. The confirmation itself was provided via the company’s official Keyword Blog on August 21. With that said, users shouldn’t be surprised if it takes a few days for features to hit their devices.
With the addition of Bluetooth support, Google says Google Home users will be able to play music from nearly any Bluetooth-enabled device including content from “Google Play Music, Pandora, YouTube Music,” and hundreds of audio apps that support Google’s Cast API. It isn’t immediately apparent whether streaming is actually contingent on whether the app is “Google Cast-enabled,” but those are the examples the company has opted to include. If it isn’t dependant on apps that are Cast-enabled, users should be able to stream pretty much anything on their Google Home devices through Bluetooth. Beyond that, Google says that users in the U.S., U.K., and Canada will “soon” have the option to use Deezer through Google Home – which is a feature that Germany and France have already had access to.
Taking things further still, Google says Google Assistant can also now help listeners find songs that they can’t remember the name of. That also applies to albums for which they don’t remember the artist’s name. Describing “album artwork” or reciting a few lyrics from a song to Google Assistant, Google says, will help Assistant pin down the tune or album. Then users can ask Assistant to play it or can stream the content through their favorite supported app. By way of example, Google says a user could hint at Nirvana’s 1991 album ‘Nevermind’ as “the one with the baby in the water” or at the Beatles’ 1969 album “Abbey Road” as the one with “four guys walking across the street in London.” Each of these features will also work with the Google Home application’s multi-room feature – which connects cast enabled devices on the same network.