Picture of the Google Home Mini speaker rebooting, showing white scanning lights pattern.

How to Lower Volume on Google Home Mini

There are many ways for how to lower volume on Google Home Mini. These depend on the app(s) you’re playing audio from mainly. But the Mini itself has two touch pads also, for volume control on its left and right edges. Plus, you can set volume within the Google Home app. Finally, the Google Mini also sets loudness by way of voice commands directed to it.

Below, we show these volume lowering ways, which you can use regardless of the app you’re streaming from. But we do not explore app-specific volume setting of the output device. Why? Because with so many apps that send audio to smart speakers these days, this post would quickly grow too unwieldy. So, we’ll just stick with the basic volume reducing methods here.

How to Lower Volume on Google Home Mini

You can lower the volume without any apps, this way, as follows.

1. Place the Google Home Mini Such That the USB Power Cord is at the Top (Twelve O’clock)

Shown next.

Picture of the Google Mini speaker, showing top view, with power cord at twelve o'clock.
Google Mini speaker, showing top view, with power cord at twelve o’clock. How to lower volume on Google Home Mini.

2. Lower Volume by Tapping the Google Home Mini Left Edge (Nine O’clock)

The next picture points out the locations of the volume touch pad zones. Find them in the same straight line formed by the four action lights.

Tap the left edge of the speaker (nine o’clock) to lower the volume by ten percent.

Picture of the speaker, showing volume adjustment in progress. See the highlighted volume touch pads, in purple.
Google Home Mini smart speaker, showing volume adjustment in progress. See the highlighted volume touch pads, in purple.

If you need finer volume lowering, use the Google Home app to decrease speaker volume, described below.





How to Lower Volume on Google Home Mini Using Voice Commands

Google Home Mini understands two scales for volume adjustment: 0-10 and 0-100 percent. If you want to say a percent to set the volume, then add the word ‘percent’ to your command. Example commands follow.

    • Hey Google, set volume 10 percent.
    • Hey Google, set volume 76 percent.
    • Okay Google, set volume 100 percent.

If you say the percent label, then 0 means lowest volume (muted) and 100 means max (full) volume. But if you omit the percent label, then the volume range runs between 0 and 10.

    • Okay Google, set volume 5. [Adjusts the volume to half, 50 percent of maximum.]
    • Hey Google, set volume 0. [Sets the volume to minimum.]
    • Okay Google, set volume 10. [Sets the volume to maximum, 100 percent]
    • Hey Google, lower volume. [Reduces volume.]
    • Okay Google, turn down the volume.  [Again, reduces the volume.]
    • Hey Google, decrease volume.  [Again, reduces the volume.]

There are also shortcut commands for minimum and maximum volume setting, as in:

    • Okay Google, mute. [Sets the volume to zero percent, minimum, muted state.]
    • Hey Google, set volume half. [Lowers volume to fifty percent, or half of full.]
    • Okay Google, volume half. [Again, lowers output volume to fifty percent, or half of full.]
    • Hey Google, volume minimum. [Lowers the volume to zero percent, minimum, muted state.]




How to Lower Google Home Mini Volume with the Google Home App

In the Google Home app, which must have WiFi access to your speaker, you can lower its volume as well. How? Find your Google Home Mini in the available Google devices list in the app. Then, move the volume slider left until you hit your desired lower volume level.

Note that you can’t lower speaker volume via the app unless it is actually streaming / playing something. Why not?  Because you won’t see the volume control in the Google Home app unless streaming.

To lower the volume from within the Google Home app, follow the routine listed next.

1. Run the Google Home App

Bring up Google Home on your mobile device. You should see its Home screen, as shown next.

Picture of the Home app on iOS, displaying its home screen, with the hamburger menu control highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS, showing its Home screen, with the hamburger menu control highlighted. How to lower volume on Google Home Mini.

2. Tap the Main Menu ‘Hamburger’ Control

This item is pointed at by the purple arrow in the previous picture.

This then brings up the main menu, as shown next.

Picture of the Google Home app on iOS in 2017, displaying its hamburger menu, with the Devices Item highlighted.
Google Home app on iOS in 2017, displaying its hamburger menu, with the Devices Item highlighted. How to lower volume on Google Home Mini.

3. Tap the Devices Menu Item

See this, pointed to by the purple arrow in the last picture.

You then see the Devices screen, as exemplified in the picture shown in the next step.





4. On the Devices Screen, Scroll to Find your Currently Playing Google Home Mini Speaker

See this as shown next.

The speaker is currently streaming when you see a small speaker icon (volume setting link). Find this in the lower right edge of its device card, as pointed at by the purple arrow.

But this button does not show when not streaming. Thus, you won’t be able to turn down the volume like this, when the Mini is playing nothing. So, be sure to stream something to your Google Mini before lowering the volume this way.

Picture of the app displaying its Devices screen. This shows the smart speaker playing an iHeart radio station.
Google Home app on iOS, showing its Devices screen. This has the smart speaker playing an iHeart radio station. How to lower volume on Google Home Mini.

5. Tap the Speaker Volume Button

See the speaker volume button in the last picture.

Tapping it then brings up the volume control screen, as pictured next.

Picture of the app displaying its volume control screen for the Google Home Mini smart speaker.
Google Home app on iOS, displaying its volume control screen for the Google Home Mini smart speaker.

6. Touch and Drag the Volume Slider Button

Drag the slider left (counterclockwise)  around the circle, until you reach your preferred volume.

The slider control provides a more granular lowering of the volume than the touch pads on the Google Mini itself. That is, you can lower the volume in much finer increments. This is much finer than the ten-percent bumps you get when tapping the touch pads on the speaker.

Note that moving the volume slider around takes effect right away. No need to press any Submit buttons to force the new setting into effect.





How to Lower Volume on Google Home Mini on Bluetooth Source Device

If using your Google Home Mini as a Bluetooth speaker, you can lower its volume with the controls on the paired device. In this demonstration, we’re playing YouTube content on our iPad Air, and streaming to the Mini Google Home via a Bluetooth connection.

1. Pair your Google Home Mini as a Bluetooth speaker.

See our post  here,  that explains how to pair.

2. Begin Playing a Music Source

Stream such recordings as an internet radio station, a song from Spotify, or an Audible book. In this scenario, we streamed YouTube audio to our Mini, as shown next.

3. Use your Source Mobile Device’s Volume Control Buttons to Lower the Volume

Shown next.

Picture of the YouTube app on iOS, as seen during turning down the volume while playing a video.
YouTube app on iOS, as seen during turning down of the volume while playing a video.

Note the purple arrowed volume setter square with a speaker inside of it in the last picture.

Also note that the lower volume you hear lags by a second or so. Why? Because of the latency (delay) of the commands going across the Bluetooth airwaves.

Finally, you can cast to the Google Home devices like the Mini too. Similar to Bluetooth, but done over Wi-Fi instead. Yet like in this Bluetooth example, you can usually lower the volume of the speaker. How? By turning it down in the casting app.

But again, we’re not covering in this piece how to lower volume for individual apps. So, we leave doing this for the reader to figure out.

Other Posts About the Google Home Mini Smart Speaker

    1. How to Set Up Spotify on Google Home Mini
    2. Google Home Mini Power Adapter Specs
    3. Clearing Google Assistant Voice Recordings History Instructions
    4. How to Control Google Home Mini Volume
    5. AC Power Adapter for Google Home Mini

References for How to Lower Volume on Google Home Mini Speaker

    1. Control volume of Google Home at support.google.com

Revision History

    • 2020-05-10: Added the Other Posts About… section.
    • 2019-07-22: Added more tags and links.
    • 2019-05-09: Added tags and tweaked the targeting for ‘Lower Volume on Google Home Mini’.
    • 2019-01-06: First posted.