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Smart DNS Proxy l October 18, 2019

How to Control Android TV with Google Home

There is going to be a lot of “OK Google” on this video, so make sure you turn off your Google assistant if you don’t want it to be triggered.

In one of our previous videos, we showed you how to control your Fire TV Stick with Amazon Echo Dot, if you haven’t check that out, click on the YouTube card in the video to watch that.

And guess what we have today? Yes, you guess it right. Today, we’ll show you how to send voice commands from your Google Home to your Chromecast or any Android based TV like Nvidia Shield and Mi Box.

Now, most Android TVs already come with Google Assistant built in, but connecting it with Google Home will give you hands-free experience. For instance, you can say:

 “OK Google, Play Joker trailer from YouTube on Shield”

And even if you don’t have any Google home devices, you can still use the Google assistant on your phone to control your Android TV. Sounds interesting? Let’s see how it’s done, shall we?

Android TV Box and Android TV

Let's start with Android TV and box like Shield TV and Mi Box. If you have a Chromecast, we’ll leave a link in the description of the video on how to set it up with Google Home. Steps are pretty much similar.

Step 1. Setup Google Home

Power on Google Home Mini and download the Google Home app on your smartphone. The app will automatically detect the Google Home Mini. If it doesn’t, go to ‘Devices’ and select ‘Add devices’ and follow the on-screen instructions. Next, choose the room where your Google Home Mini will be located, and then tap ‘Next’. Now, choose your home Wi-Fi and enter the password. You can further customize it by adding more information about you like training the AI with your voice and your address, to get more personalized results.

Step 2: Setup your Android TV

Now, head over to your Android TV settings and check if you are connected to same Wi-Fi and email address. For me it’s the same Wi-Fi and email.

Step 3: Link necessary service Google Home

Now, go back to the Google Home app on your smartphone and you should be able to see your Google Home and Android TV (Shield in my case) listed under local devices.

Next, you need to link services like Netflix and Spotify. To do so, tap on the profile icon on the bottom right of the screen, to bring up the settings menu. From here, navigate to the service tab by swiping right, tap on music and select Spotify from there and log in to your account. You can do so for other music services as well.

Next, link your Netflix account by going to the ‘Photos and Video’ option and link it by signing in to your account. You also need to specify users here, which is going to be the default user every time you play Netflix via Google Home.

And, in case you want pictures on your Android, you can also enable Google photos from the same windows.

And finally, if you have multiple Chromecast-enabled devices in your home like Mi Box, Shield TV or Android TV, then you need to set one of them as default by going to device settings of your speaker (i.e. Google Home) and then choose default TV from the list, set one of them as default, in our case it’s going to be Shield TV.

And that’s it, now your Android TV is linked to your Google Home. And you can send voice commands from your Google Home to your Android TV. For instance:

OK Google, play Stranger Things on Netflix

OK Google, pause

OK Google, next episode

OK Google Exit

OK Google, open YouTube

OK Google, skip ahead 90 seconds

OK Google, show my personal photos on Shield

OK Google, set Shield TV volume to 7

OK Google, next video on YouTube

The best part is, if your TV supports HDMI-CEC then you can use Google Home to tell your Shield TV to turn the TV on or off. We have a detailed video on that, which will be listed in the YouTube cards and descriptions below the video. Do check it out.

And, that’s how you use you Google home with Android TV or Android-based streaming devices like Chromecast.

Speaking of Chromecast, we’ve done plenty of videos like best apps for Chromecast and tips and tricks. Also, check out Smart DNS Proxy, which lets you unblock geo-restrictions of video sites like Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Amazon Prime Video and much more. We’ve done videos on how to set it up on all streaming devices.

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