The Google Home speaker has been around for awhile now and there are a nice handful of Google Assistant devices already on the market. We’ve reviewed our fair share of Google Home devices and there is one feature that has increasingly become my favorite: the Broadcast feature.
Your Google Assistant can do a bunch of things for you already, like getting the weather, reading notifications, reading your news feed, and getting you information from the web. The Broadcast feature is one I think is most useful for families — especially for families with small children.
I have four little ones at home and one adult child out in the wild. Often times my wife and I need to get everyone together into one room and that involves either going up to individual rooms or yelling at the top of our lungs. There are many times a quick trip up the stairs to gather the group together is no problem, but sometimes you have your hands full and you just can’t get up there.
That’s where Broadcast comes in for us. The feature works like an intercom system with your phone and Google Home devices. You should first be sure you’re devices are all running the latest firmware and have the latest updates. It’s also important that all your devices are connected to the same network, which should be the case for most (unless you’re running two networks for whatever reason).
For the Broadcast feature to work, you’ll need to be sure all the devices you want to use together are logged into your Google account. Then it’s as simple as grabbing your Android phone and saying, “Hey Google, Broadcast.” For iOS devices, you should open the Google Home app and say Broadcast. To invoke Broadcast on a speaker or device you need to push the Google Assistant button or say “Hey Google, Broadcast.”
Once you say the Broadcast trigger word, the Assistant will ask you what message you want to send. You can then say your message and the Assistant will send it to all your Google Home devices. Users can then send a reply from any device and that will be sent back… it’s very slick and useful.
We’ve found this feature very useful in reminding our kids of chores they are supposed to be doing when we hear them playing upstairs instead of working. It’s also useful when you’re outside and they’re inside and you need them. There’s a lot of scenarios the feature can work in and it’s something you should try out. In our case, we have several Home devices so we have the whole house covered.
What do you think of the Google Home Broadcast feature? Do you use it yourself on a regular basis? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, or Facebook. You can also comment on our MeWe page by joining the MeWe social network.
Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
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