The Google Home has always been a really nice smart speaker, capable of performing a wide variety of tasks, including things like giving an overview of the day, casting photos and videos to Cast-enabled devices, checking the calendar, and a lot more. However, one of the major shortcomings of the smart speaker, was that it was unable to identify different voices, and provide personalized results for them. So, if two users wanted to share the same Google Home device, they’d have to share their music playlists, their daily feed, and a lot more. Fortunately, Google has now updated the Google Home to support multiple user accounts (up to 6, to be exact). So, if you’d like to set up multiple users on your Google branded smart speaker, here is how to add multiple user accounts on Google Home:
Teach Google Home to Recognize Your Voice
Before we start adding other user accounts to the Google Home, let’s make sure it recognizes our voice properly, first. This can be done very easily, and doesn’t take long. Just follow the steps given below:
Note: While a lot of people are saying that a “Multiple Users are now supported” card is showing up on their Google Home app, it didn’t show up on my phone, for some reason. So, I used the longer method for getting this to work. If you see the card, you can tap on it to set up multiple users as well.
- First, launch the Google Home app, and tap on the hamburger menu icon on the top left. Here, tap on “More settings”.
- In the “Google Assistant” settings page that opens up, scroll down and tap on “Shared devices“. Tap on the “+” icon in the bottom right to add a new shared device.
- The Google Home app will automatically detect any connected devices, and you can simply select the device you want to add as a shared device. Just select your Google Home device, and tap on “Continue”.
- You will then have to teach the Google Assistant to recognize your voice. Once you’re ready, tap “Get Started“. Then, follow the instructions on the app.
- Once you’re done, you can tap on “Continue”. Your Google Home will now recognize your voice, and will give you your personalized updates when you ask it for them.
Adding Multiple Users on Google Home
Now that you’ve ensured that the Google Home can recognize your voice, it’s time to add other users to the Google Home settings. This can be done on their phones, with the Google Home app, and it can also be done directly on your phone. I’m using my own phone to add the new users. Here are the steps you’ll have to take:
- Launch the Google Home app, and tap on the hamburger menu icon on the top left. Here, tap on the little arrow next to your email ID.
- If the other user account is already added on your phone, simply tap on it to switch to that user, and set up voice recognition. Otherwise, tap on “Manage Accounts“. Then, tap on “Add account“.
- Enter the credentials for the account you wish to add. Once the account is added, you can just go to the hamburger menu again, and tap on “More Settings“.
- Here, you can just go to “Shared devices“, and tap on the “+” icon to add the Google Home to your shared devices.
- You can then ask the other user to set up their voice for the Google Home to recognize, and once they’re done, just tap “Continue”. Google Home will now be able to differentiate between the two voices, and the next time one of you says “What does my day look like?”, Home will provide personalized details according to the person it recognizes.
You can currently add up to 6 different people to the same Google Home speaker. This is definitely a great new feature, and one that will help a lot of people avoid sharing their playlists, photos, and personal preferences with other members of the household. Obviously, if you’d rather share the same email ID with the entire household, you don’t really have to change anything at all.
SEE ALSO: How to Control Your Android Phone from Google Home
Add Multiple Users on Google Home for Personalized Responses
With Google Home finally supporting multiple users, you can easily add all of your family members’ Google accounts to the Home, and teach the smart speaker to recognize different voices, associate them with a Google account, and give personalized results according to the voice it recognizes. One of the first things I tried, was adding multiple accounts and train them all with my own voice. However, it turns out that while you can add multiple Google accounts, and teach them all your own voice, Google Home simply associates the voice with the account that was added first, so it’s not really useful for anything.
As always, I’d like to know your thoughts on the Google Home, the new capabilities that Google has added to it, and what you think about how this will impact the Google Home vs Amazon Echo comparisons. Do share your thoughts in the comments section below.
