Google has finally rolled out the much-awaited option to connect Google Home devices to external Bluetooth speakers. Until now, the company only allowed the Home devices to be used as Bluetooth speakers themselves, while streaming to other Bluetooth-enabled speakers was barred via software. This was a highly-requested feature and Google also noted the fact in its official blog where the announcement was made. The feature will be rolled out to the entire Google Home family of smart speakers starting today and should hit the said devices sooner than later. The company does mention that the users will still have to talk to the Google Home devices, and not the connected speaker, for getting a voice feedback.
Besides giving you the ability to control your Bluetooth speakers using voice commands, the new feature will allow pairing with multiple speakers for a multi-room audio experience. Pairing can be done easily using the Google Home device itself and the speaker can be set to default from the Google Home app. Once set, the Home device will automatically stream music to the default Bluetooth speaker with no need to name it each time in the voice command. Without the support for connecting to Bluetooth speakers, the only way to stream music and podcasts to external devices was using Chromecast built-in speakers or Chromecast Audio. Both of them discouraged the prospective buyers with an existing audio system to go for a Google Home speaker that came along with an added expense for a new Chromecast-enabled device. Amazon’s entire Echo lineup offers connectivity to external speakers both via Bluetooth and old-school 3.5mm audio port, giving it an edge over Google’s offerings.
Google Home Mini, the smallest of the three Home speakers, will be benefitted the most with today’s announcement. It is a compact smart speaker designed to just get the job done and not to impress any audiophiles, leaving the users wanting for a readily available option to connect the Home Mini to their existing speakers. The company has been consistently releasing similar updates for its Home devices bringing newer features to improve the overall user experience with its smart speakers.