Google Assistant Music Commands

With the growing support for voice assistants in various smart home products, Google’s own assistant is one of the most helpful out there. And coupled with the top-notch voice recognition algorithms, your level of voice control over your smart devices is both convenient and extensive. Further throw in the support of many third-party manufacturers and now you’re able to control a slew of smart devices using short voice commands.

And when it comes to playing music on your smart speakers or another device, Google Assistant delivers. You have numerous voice commands at your disposal and you can choose what you’d like to listen to with precision. Search, navigate, play random tracks, find a suitable radio station, and adjust volume are only some of the voice commands you’re about to learn.

Which Devices Are Compatible With Google Assistant?

Thanks to the prevalence of Google services across many industries, listening to music with Google Assistant’s help is possible on a range of devices. This is not to mention that many third-party manufacturers support Google Assistant besides. Please find in the list below some of the device types on which you can find Google Assistant.

• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Computers and tablets
• Smart speakers
• Smart displays
• TVs
• Wearable devices
• Cars
• Consoles

Of course, whether you’ll be able to fully utilize Google Assistant’s voice commands will depend on the manufacturer’s level of integration with Google and the device’s technical capabilities.

When it comes to operating systems, all the major players work well enough with Google Assistant. Here’s a list of the common OS’s supported:

• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft Xbox One
• Apple Mac
• iOS
• Android
• Android TV
• Android Auto
• Wear OS
• Chrome OS
• Linux
• Nvidia Shield

As far as Google devices are concerned, you can listen to music with the help of Google Assistant when using:

• Google Home
• Google Nest
• Google Pixel Buds
• Android smartphones
• Android tablets
• Chromebook laptops

Which Music Services Are Compatible With Google Assistant?

Now that you know which devices have Google Assistant, it’s time to focus on the services that you can control using voice commands. It’s worth noting that depending on whether you’re using a free or premium version of the service, as well as the region where you’re located, some services might be unavailable or have a different music catalog.

For example, when searching for a song using Google Assistant, there’s a huge difference between having a free or premium account for some services.

When using free versions of YouTube Music, Spotify, and Pandora to look for a specific song, Google Assistant will play a free internet radio station relating to the song, artist, or album searched for.

But, if you use one of the premium services, Google Assistant will play that exact song asked for. This also applies when searching for specific albums, artists, and playlists, as well as the music genre, theme, mood, or activity specified. You can find below a list of premium music services available for control using Google Assistant.

• YouTube Premium
• YouTube Music Premium
• Spotify Premium
• Apple Music
• Pandora Premium
• Deezer Premium

Besides these services, Google Assistant works with many other internet radio stations like iHeartRadio, TuneIn Radio, and more.

Setting Up Google Assistant

In order to play music using the streaming services with Google Assistant, you first have to link your accounts using the mobile Google Home app. You can install the app from Google Play for Android devices or Apple’s App Store for iOS devices. If you’ve already installed Google Home, make sure you’ve updated the app to the latest version.

When you have the app ready, follow the steps below to link the music streaming services to Google Assistant.

1. Start the Google Home app on your mobile device.
2. Tap “Account” in the top-right corner of the screen.
3. Make sure you’re currently logged into Google Home with the account that you wish to use. If you’re logged in with another account, switch to the one that you’ll be using.
4. Once you’ve confirmed you’re using the right Google account, return to the app’s home screen.
5. Now tap the “plus” icon in the top left corner of the screen.
6. Tap the “Music” option from the menu.
7. From the list of available services, tap the one that you want to link with Google Assistant.
8. The app will now ask you to provide your username & password for that specific service. Once you do that, the app will inform you that you’ve successfully linked your music streaming service to your Google Home account.

If you want to link more services, simply repeat the steps above for each service.

Now that you’ve added all the music and audio services, you can also select one of them to be your default one for playing music.

1. Start the Google Home app.
2. Tap the “plus” icon in the top left corner.
3. Tap “Music.”
4. In the section “Your music services,” tap the service you want to set as default for playing music.

With all the services linked to Google Home, it’s time to learn all the voice commands for Google Assistant.

Basic Google Assistant Voice Commands for Playing Music

The first thing to say when starting the communication with Google Assistant is:

• "OK, Google..." or
• "Hey, Google..."

After that, simply command the assistant to do something. To start it off, try the voice command

• “OK, Google, play music.”

This automatically plays a random song using the default app/service in the Google Home Music settings.

However, if you want to play random music on any of the available music services, just specify at the end of the command.

• “Hey, Google, play music on Spotify.”
• “Hey, Google, play music on YouTube Music.”
• “OK, Google, play music on Pandora.”

If you want Google Assistant to play a specific song using the default music app, you can say

• “OK, Google, play .”

To specify an app for Google Assistant to play that song with, simply say

• “OK, Google, play on .”

For example, you can say “OK, Google, play Gangnam Style on Spotify” and the song will start playing with the Spotify app on your device. Depending on what you want to listen to, you can also use some of the commands from the list below.

• “OK, Google, play .”
• “Hey, Google, play on Apple Music.”
• “OK, Google, play station on Spotify.”
• “OK, Google, play playlist on Spotify.”

Besides that, you can get even more specific with your commands, like for example:

• “OK, Google, play Joe Rogan Experience episode 1234.”
• “Hey, Google, play the song that goes give it away, give it away, give it away now.”
•  “OK, Google, play west coast hip-hop on YouTube Music.”
• “Hey, Google, play some soothing music.”
• “OK, Google, play whale sounds.”
• “OK, Google, play new songs from Run the Jewels.”
• “Hey, Google, play new pop music.”
• “Hey, Google, play Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack.”
• “OK, Google, play some 90s music.”

For anyone willing to explore similar music to their preference, they can do that as well with the help of Google Assistant.

• “Hey, Google, play music like .”

This command will generate a playlist with music similar to the one requested. Since this is a more premium feature, it’s available only with Spotify Premium and YouTube Music. These two services have another benefit for anyone who doesn’t have specific music on their mind at the moment.

• “OK, Google, recommend me some music.”
• “OK, Google, play recommended music.”

And if you don’t like the recommendations, you can tell Google Assistant as well.

• “Hey, Google, play something else.”
• “Hey, Google, play different music.”

Controlling the Music Playback With Google Assistant

Now that you know the basic voice commands for playing music with Google Assistant, it’s time to learn some of the more advanced commands. First of all, you should be able to stop or pause the music, perhaps to be continued later.

• “Hey, Google, stop music.”
• “OK, Google, pause music.”
• “OK, Google, resume music.”
• “Hey, Google, continue playing the music.”
• “Hey, Google, play music.”

It’s worth noting that there’s a limit to Google Assistant’s memory in terms of resuming a song. After some twenty minutes, it won’t be able to resume the song from when you paused it.

If you want to navigate through songs on an album or playlist, say any combination of these words.

• “OK, Google, play the next song.”
• “OK, Google, skip this tune.”
• “OK, Google, play the previous track.”

As you can see, Google Assistant understands synonyms, so instead of “song,” you can say “tune,” “track,” or similar.

Besides that, you can also use voice commands to play the song again or scroll through it.

• “OK, Google, restart song.”
• “Hey, Google, play this song from the beginning.”
• “Hey, Google, play song from start.”
• “OK, Google, jump forward twenty seconds.”
• “OK, Google, skip backward half a minute.”
• “OK, Google, forward two minutes.”

Finally, what good is the music experience if you can’t shuffle or repeat, right? Well, you can. Try some of these commands below.

• “Hey, Google, shuffle.”
• “OK, Google, repeat on.”
• “OK, Google, turn off shuffle.”
• “Hey, Google, set the repeat to off.”

Controlling the Music Volume With Google Assistant

Having mastered playback with Google Assistant, you can now focus on adjusting volume. Google Assistant uses 10% increments to adjust volume levels, starting with zero and all the way up to 100%.

• “OK, Google, turn up the volume.”
• “Hey, Google, change volume down.”
• “Hey, Google, volume up.”
• “OK, Google, lower the volume.”
• “Hey, Google, raise volume.”
• “OK, Google, turn it down.”

Of course, you can also tell your Google Assistant to adjust the volume to the exact loudness. In this case, you can use either 10% increments or a scale of 1 to 10.

• “Hey, Google, volume two.”
• “OK, Google, set the volume to one hundred percent.”
• “Hey, Google, turn the volume to thirty.”

You can also use dedicated voice commands to turn the volume to the maximum or mute.

• “Hey, Google, mute.”
• “OK, Google, set the music to the minimum.”
• “Hey, Google, turn it up to max!”
• “OK, Google, unmute the music.” (this returns music to the sound level it was before you said “mute”)

If you’re not certain of the current volume, you can always ask Google Assistant.

• “OK, Google, what’s the volume?”

During playback, you can also access volume settings using either of the two voice commands:

• “Hey, Google, volume.”
• “Ok, Google, sound.”

Although Google Home allows you to adjust equalizer options, unfortunately, this menu is not accessible using voice commands. To set the bass and treble to the desired level, do the following.

1. Open the Google Home app on your mobile device.
2. Tap the menu icon in the top left corner of the screen. It’s the icon that looks like a “plus” sign.
3. From the list of your connected devices, tap the one for which you want to set the equalizer settings.
4. Now tap the settings icon in the top right corner.
5. In the “Sound settings” menu you’ll find the “Equalizer” option. Tap it.
6. The next menu shows you the bass and treble sliders that you can adjust to the desired level.

Your Music Over Google

Hopefully, this article helped you learn all the useful voice commands for controlling your smart home devices with Google Assistant. With that knowledge, it’s time to relax and play your favorite tunes, listen to a podcast, or tune in to one of the thousands of internet radio stations available.

Which of the voice commands do you use most often with Google Assistant? Are there any additional commands that you miss or would like to have? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.