Elevating Your Home Audio Experience: GOOGLE's Latest Update Revolutionizes Multi-Speaker Control

In the smart home space, perhaps the biggest beneficiary of this major shift has been the fact that you can turn things on and off and modify the environment around you with just a few taps or, even better, a few words. It’s the kind of relief in user experience that makes you noticeably less likely to pull your hair out. Between smart speakers, wireless earbuds, good old-fashioned Bluetooth speakers, and the flexibility to group them as you choose, the GOOGLE Home app has taken a dignity-saving leap forward in making the interactions with all of your smart devices easier and more satisfying. After previously being shut down due to a legal kerfuffle, users’ long-awaited ability to adjust multiple speakers’ or devices’ volumes from a single hub is back in the game. The last big step in a concerted effort to make it easier for users to manage their home audio has arrived.

The Journey Back to Multi-Speaker Volume Control

Late last year and early this year, GOOGLE Home’s group volume feature, which allows for changing the volume on several speakers at once, was removed due to a lawsuit levied against GOOGLE by Sonos. This particular feature had become normalized into users’ lives, creating a disruption of something previously considered vital. Now, GOOGLE has reinstated this functionality, no doubt to the delight of its current user base.

How to Utilize The Enhanced Volume Control

Leveraging this restored feature is a breeze. Users can simply:

• Launch the GOOGLE Home app on their Android device.
• Initiate a playback session.
• Access the mini-player.
• Also, with a single click of the output selector, you can either add extra speakers on the fly or switch between preset Speaker groups.
• Effortlessly control the volume for all selected devices simultaneously.

This functionality was also restored for Assistant voice commands. Users could say: ‘Hey GOOGLE, set volume to 40 per cent,’ and the volume for the entire group of Speakers would immediately change.

What’s Next for GOOGLE Home Users?

But GOOGLE isn’t done now: in the future, Group Volume Control is also to become available on the Android lock screen and Smart Displays (like the Nest Hub), with a launch planned for Android 15 which is already available in beta for Pixel users.

Exploring Further Enhancements in GOOGLE Home

And that’s just one aspect of GOOGLE’s roadmap: volume control is getting smarter, too. New features already released or scheduled for the near future extend GOOGLE Home’s seamlessness and naturalness by increasing its connections to other devices and services. Here are just a few examples.

• An update of the GOOGLE Home app that enables users to save their favourite commands and devices into a newly created ‘Favourites’ widget.
• Further updates to Chromecast with GOOGLE TV, turning the dongle into a home for GOOGLE Home, adding further utility and flexibility.
• An integration of Pixel’s Bedtime mode with GOOGLE Home so that you can control your device from your bedroom, and a smoother path to sleep.
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• Enhanced GOOGLE Home APIs that will let outside apps work more deeply with all your smart-home devices, and with your Nest thermostat and other ‘home controls’: this is the part of the story of the internet of things that will further unleash the magic of customization, automation and fun.

The Significance of GOOGLE's Continuous Innovation

GOOGLE’s great game of catch-up is also a demonstration that, for them, innovation is not so much about the technology, which will surely come, but about the user: when reintroduced, the group volume control received an upgrade that catered exactly – and only – to the expressed user need: to override the volume of a call. GOOGLE’s catch-up became catch-and-return, serving as an important demonstration: if you listen to your users and act on the feedback that is given to you, here’s what you can do to make the bond between you and your base even stronger. And – given GOOGLE’s inevitable status as a global leader in smart home technology – also here’s what you’ll be doing as an undisputed ruler of the controllers.

Understanding GOOGLE's Role in Shaping the Future of Smart Homes

With regular, ongoing updates, feature upgrades, and future-facing integrations, GOOGLE Home app is being positioned by GOOGLE as a go-to source for smart home control and customization. All of this puts GOOGLE in an interesting – and very powerful – position, one that promises to see smart home technology continue to evolve in interesting and exciting ways as the firm continues its ‘optimistic engineering’ and user-centric development. As we’re told in the FAQ for the new GOOGLE Home app, the tech giant recommends having at least 20 minutes in the morning each day for its routine smart home optimizations. In the future, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.

Conclusion

This is why, when the group volume control feature disappeared from the GOOGLE Home app, GOOGLE brought it back with the release of the GOOGLE Home app 2.20. Users have GOOGLE to thank for creating a unified smart home that blended the convenience of a remote with an eraser – and making sure that it’s going to get better and better. Next time, you might want to thank GOOGLE.

About GOOGLE

GOOGLE has dominated technology megatrends for decades, reinventing the ways we work, play, shop and live, across devices, search, maps and more. SEO is just one part of how GOOGLE helps its products and services work together seamlessly for users. From SEO (search engine optimisation) to smart home solutions, GOOGLE’s products and services are designed to be helpful, bolstering what you do and making life easier.