All current Google Home smart speakers may now be used as Bluetooth speakers, thanks to firmware and Google Home app updates in 2017. Here, we show how to connect your tablet or phone to a Google Home smart speaker via Bluetooth. That way, you can then transmit audio to the speaker for room-filling, awesome sounding playback given how small these smart speakers are. Furthermore in this post, we offer Google Home Bluetooth speaker pairing instructions. Plus, while this demo shows the process using the Google Home Mini, a like process also works with the original Google Home smart speaker, as well as the Google Home Max.
Now we wish to connect (pair) a Google Home smart speaker to an iPad Air tablet, such that the speaker becomes a Bluetooth speaker. Again, this allows play of any audio that the iPad is playing, through that speaker. Why would you wish t do this? Because perhaps you’re watching a Netflix movie or playing your Amazon music library on your iPhone, but wish to have louder, and over all better sound for it. So pairing your device to the Google Home Mini indeed fills this bill.
Google Home Pairing, Step by Step
1. Connect all Devices to the Internet
Firstly, make sure that both your tablet and your Google Home based speaker are online and connected to the Internet.
2. Turn Bluetooth ON
Secondly, do this on the source device that you’re pairing with the Google Mini (in our case, we’re pairing from an iPad Air), and assure that you see the “Now discoverable as” message, as shown next.
3. Next, Run the Google Home App to Continue with Google Home Pairing
Thirdly, on our iPad, this app appears on the third home page, as pictured next.
The Google Home app home screen then displays, as pictured next.
4. Then, Tap the Hamburger Item
Find this at the top left corner of the Google Home app home screen. This brings up the main menu window, as shown next.
5. Next, Tap the Devices Menu Item
This brings up the list of Google Home devices that the app knows about, as shown next. We’ve scrolled down the list of in-network devices and located our Mini, as shown.
6. Tap the Hamburger Menu Link for the Speaker you’re Pairing
The purple arrow points this out in the previous picture. The hamburger menu opens, as shown in the next picture.
7. Tap the Settings Item in the Hamburger Menu to Continue with Google Home Pairing
In addition, see this displayed in the previous picture, with the purple circle around it. You then see the Device Settings screen for the specific Google Home speaker device, similar to as displayed on the previous screen, whose specific setting options appear on the screen shown next. In our case, that device, the Google Home Mini, is named Office Speaker.
Note that we’ve scrolled down to the Device Settings section on this screen to find the Paired Bluetooth Devices option, as circled in the next picture.
8. Tap the Paired Bluetooth Devices Item
This is circled in the previous picture.
The Paired Bluetooth Devices screen then appears as shown next, where we can select a Bluetooth device from a list of devices that we’ve previously paired with, had we ever paired with any before. Since we have not, the screen is almost entirely blank.
9. Tap the Enable Pairing Mode Link
This puts the Google Home device we’re working with into Bluetooth discovery mode. That is, it will now show up when other in-range devices scan for Bluetooth Devices. Confirmation of this is shown by a black bar momentarily appearing at the bottom of the Paired Bluetooth Devices screen, as shown next.
10. Go to the Bluetooth Settings Screen in the Settings App on your Mobile Device
On our iPad Air, we hit the home button, tapped the Settings app, and then tapped Bluetooth on the left side of the screen, to reveal the following screen.
11. Next, Tap the Desired Device in this List that you Wish to Pair
In our case here, that would be the Office Speaker device, as circled above.
Then, if all goes well, your Mini plays a short burst of musical chord, and pairing then occurs. Your paired device then moves up from the Other Devices list to My Devices if you’re using the pairing feature on an iOS device, as shown next for our case; the purple circled Office Speaker device.
12. Return to the Paired Bluetooth Devices screen in the Google Home App
There, you’ll now find that the Google Home App had added the source device (your phone or tablet) to its known Bluetooth devices list, as illustrated in the next picture. Our pairing source device is called Tom’s iPad.
Finally, at this point, all your tablet’s generated sounds would play on your Google Home smart speaker. Pairing is complete.
How to Unpair after Google Home Pairing
Lastly, you would unpair your Google Home from a source Bluetooth device as follows. Say “Okay Google, disconnect”. Or, say “Hey Google, disconnect”. Moreover, if you do not fancy giving voice commands, go into the Bluetooth settings on your source device. Then you can break the Bluetooth connection from there.
Other Posts About the Google Home
Related Posts to Google Home Pairing
References for Google Home Pairing
Revision History
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- 2020-05-15: Added more tags.
- 2019-02-25: Added some tags.
- 2017-12-11: Originally published.