How to pair your Google home with your Chromecast TV

You’ve no doubt heard about the popularity of voice-controlled technology. Did you know you can not only control speakers and lights by talking to them, you can also control your TV?

How To Connect Chromecast TV with Google Home

It’s becoming increasingly common to see voice-controlled TVs. You’ll find a few options:

• voice control is built into the remote; you’ll need to push a button to activate it; Examples: Apple TV
• voice control is built in to a smart TV. Just talk to it. Examples: Samsung Frame TV/smart TV and Android TV with Google Assistant
• voice control is added-on, usually via a streaming device like Google Chromecast, when connected to a smart home digital assistant such as Google Home. You may also see this with Apple TV and Siri via your iPhone too.

What can you do with voice controlled TV?

Depending which of the above scenarios you have, you can do different things. This article will focus on controlling a Google Chromecast device using Google Home. (There’s even a package deal on buying the two devices together. Check it out here.)

With voice control, you can ask the Google assistant to carry out several tasks like:

• Turn a Chromecast streamer on/off
• Play most streaming content by saying, “OK Google, Play (Show/movie name) on (streaming service, i.e. Netflix, YouTube) on (name of Chromecast device, i.e “Living Room TV”)
• Play music on the Chromecast to the TV’s speakers

Set up Google Home and Google Chromecast

If you haven’t already, plug in and set up/configure your Google Chromecast and/or your Google Home. Make sure you are logged into both devices using the Google Home app and ensure they are on the same Wi-Fi network. Each device will walk you through the set up in the Google Home app.

Link the Chromecast and the Home device

To get Google Home to talk to Chromecast TV you need to link them in Google Home app.

• Open Google’s Home app on your smartphone or tablet.
• You will likely see a ‘card’ on the main screen that asks you to “Link to your account”
  (If not, check that you can see both the Google Home and the Chromecast in the “Devices” tab.)
  Click Link to your account.
• Test the connection by saying, “OK Google, Play (TV Show name) on (streaming service, i.e. Netflix, YouTube) on (name of Chromecast device, i.e “Living Room TV”) If you only have one Chromecast device, you can skip taming the Chromecast player.

You should see the content start playing. If it’s not quite configured, the Google Home app may prompt you to register or log in to some video services.

How to log in to video services

Google’s Home app will likely prompt you to log in to things like YouTube and Nexflix, before you can use them but if it doesn’t, open the app for the service you’ll want to link, such as Netflix, and log in. At this point, return to the Home app and you should be linked.

For the most part, the Google Home app will help you through this set up, even if you’re using an iPhone, as I was.

Overall the set up and configuration of Home and Chromecast is easy and it lets you adopt voice-controlled streaming TV, even if you don’t have the budget for a new set.