Over the past few years I have amassed a fairly sizeable collection of Google Assistant speakers, though not entirely on purpose.

The first was a Google Home speaker that I bought out of curiosity—"research purposes," one might say—when it launched in 2016. The second, a Google Home Mini, arrived for free alongside my Pixel 2 XL in 2017. I picked up a Google Assistant-powered Lenovo Smart Display a year later, knowing I'd miss its Google Photos integration after sending back the review unit loaned to me. And when I finally added a Sonos Beam soundbar to my living room TV last fall, it just happened to have Google Assistant on board. I also upgraded my Home Mini to a newer Nest Mini for free and bought a second one on eBay to match, which is too long of a story for this newsletter.

Thanks to this casual accrual of Google Home and Home-like devices, I've been listening to a lot more music at home lately. And while Google Assistant and I have our issues—something I recently wrote about in Fast Company—I ultimately appreciate all the things this system can do.

Here are some of the ways you can make the most of a Google Home music setup, whether you have a single speaker or way too many. I'll start with the simpler tips and get more advanced as we go:

Cast from your phone

Instead of using voice commands to play music on a Google Home speaker, try using your phone, tablet, or computer as the remote with Google's Chromecast feature. Nearly every music app will let you control your Google Home speakers this way, including several that don't support Google Assistant voice commands. (Some examples: Apple Music for Android, Amazon Music, Plex and Pocket Casts.) Using Chromecast gives you more precise control over things like play queues and hard-to-pronounce albums, and it allows you to play music even when you've switched off your Google Home microphones.

To start Casting, make sure your phone, tablet, or laptop is connected to the same network as your speaker, press the Chromecast icon in your music app of choice, (it's the square with the little Wi-Fi ripples at the bottom-left) and choose any speaker or speaker group.

Set up speaker groups

Once you've amassed more than one Google Home speaker, you might as well tie them together into a whole-home audio system. To set up a speaker group, head to the Google Home app on your phone, tap the + button in the top-right corner, then select "Create speaker group." Select the speakers you want to combine, then give the group a name. When you want to play music on that group, just include the name in your voice command. (For example, if you created a group called "All speakers," you'd say, "Hey Google, play [artist name] on All Speakers.")

To make further adjustments, head to the "Groups" section of the Google Home app and select your group. The little slider icon at the top lets you adjust individual speaker levels, and the gear icon lets you add or remove speakers. (See below.)
 

Make a speaker pair

If you have more than one of any Google Home speaker, you can pair them together for a wider stereo effect. To set this up, select any speaker in the Google Home app, hit the Gear icon at the top of the speaker page, then select "Set up speaker pair" under "Sound settings." You can always unpair the speakers through the same menu.

A couple caveats apply, though: Pairing only works with two of the same speaker type, so you can't pair a Nest Mini with a regular Google Home, and for all voice commands and non-music responses, audio will only go through the left speaker.

Hook up your home theater

With my aforementioned Sonos soundbar, I was dismayed to learn that it doesn't support Google Home speaker groups, so I couldn't use it in my multi-room audio setup.

Fortunately, there's a workaround, one that works with any kind of soundbar or surround sound system: Just plug Google's $35 Chromecast TV dongle into the television. You can then use voice commands with any Google Home speaker to play music through the Chromecast.

You can also add Chromecast to your speaker groups, though you may have to tweak its audio sync settings to avoid latency. In the Google Home app, select your Chromecast and hit the Gear icon, then select "Group delay correction" under "Sound settings" to bring up a "Sync audio" menu. While playing some music with a strong percussive element, adjust the slider until you don't hear any ping-pong effect between the TV and your other speakers.

If you really want to get fancy, consider setting up a pair of Nest Mini speakers at the opposite end of the room from your soundbar and tying them into a speaker group at a somewhat low volume. You'll end up with a subtle surround effect while listening to music.

Group speakers by default

Here's where things get really neat: With any Google Home speaker, you can have it automatically play music on a different speaker or group of speakers in response to voice commands. When I ask for music on the Lenovo Smart Display in our kitchen, for instance, it also starts playing through Chromecast on the home theater speakers in the next room.

To set this up, select the speaker you'll use for voice commands in the Google Home app, tap the gear icon at the top of the next page, and select "Default speaker" under "Device settings." From here you can select another speaker or group of speakers to play on automatically.

Got more questions on building a system like this? Just reply to this email, and I'll gladly help.
 

I'm going to roll with the Google Assistant theme this week and point out a neat new feature for Android phones: While browsing any webpage, bring up Google Assistant and then say "read this page" or "read it." Your phone will then enter a special mode for reading the page aloud. From here you can tap the "speed" button at the bottom to have Google Assistant read faster or slower. And if you hit the vertical "..." menu at the top, you can choose a different voice for speech to text or translate the page into other languages.

This feature reminds me of a similar speech-to-text mode in Pocket, an app that I've used for years to save long reads for later. But while I never remember to use this feature in Pocket, it seems like I'm always stumbling upon some lengthy article just as I'm about to jump in the car or do some dishes. Google's new reading mode would be perfect for those situations, and it's obviously useful for folks with vision or reading impairments as well.
 

Alexa sends directions: Not to leave Amazon's voice assistant completely out of the loop this week, you can now have Alexa send directions to your phone when you're heading out the door. Just ask for directions to any location, then after you get a response, say, "Alexa, send that to my phone." Assuming you have the Alexa app on your phone, it'll display a notification that links to directions in your default mapping app. (A similar feature is already available for Google Assistant, and without the need to say "send that to my phone" as a follow-up command.)

Is this vastly more efficient than just asking your phone for directions instead? Not really, but having one less thing to think about as you're getting in the car is still nice. VentureBeat has a nice roundup of this and other recently-added Alexa features, including one I missed from January: If you have more than one Echo speaker, you can ask one to set a timer on the other.

AMD's big battery promises: After years of being an afterthought for laptops, AMD is claiming that its next-generation Ryzen 4000 mobile chips will finally compete with Intel in earnest. During a briefing for financial analysts, AMD VP of computing and graphics Rick Bergman claimed that at least one Rizen-based laptop will offer up to 18 hours of battery life. AMD has also been saying that its forthcoming chips will beat Intel's 10th-generation Core processors in pretty much every performance metric.

Granted, we don't know how AMD is coming up with its battery life numbers, and the only two laptops announced so far are a convertible from Lenovo and a gaming PC from Asus. But if Ryzen 4000 can live up to AMD's claims when it starts showing up in laptops later this year, it could be a boon for the entire laptop market. On the desktop side, where AMD has been competitive for the past few years, Intel's response has been better chips at previously-unheard of prices. It's about time that dynamic came to laptops as well.

Sonos rights the recycling ship: Sonos is course-correcting on a recycling program that seemed to only encourage more e-waste. When the company announced its "Trade Up" initiative for its connected speakers and amplifiers last year, it allowed customers to get 30% off new products, but only if they set their existing hardware to a "Recycle Mode" that rendered them inoperable. Now, Sonos is keeping the 30% upgrade discount, but without turning old speakers into fancy paperweights.

This will likely result in more Sonos speakers and amplifiers entering the second-hand market--a good thing--but keep in mind that Sonos is no longer updating the software on these older products. That means they'll no longer work as part of a multi-room audio setup with newer Sonos gear.

Some notes on coronavirus: Up until now, I've shied away from writing about coronavirus because its impact on tech hasn't been completely clear, and I was wary that speculating about supply chain slowdowns and product delays would seem insensitive to the more serious human costs.

We are starting to see some developments to be aware of, however: Last week, Bloomberg reported that Apple is warning its retail stores of a shortage on refurbished phones and replacement parts, so anyone who needs to fix a malfunctioning iPhone could be in for lengthy turnaround times. Apple's also now telling users that it's okay to use disinfectant wipes on their iPhones, iPads, and Macs, contrary to what it previously advised. Periodically cleaning your phone has always been a good idea, but that's especially true now.
 

The fine folks at Slickdeals have figured out how to get external hard drives for cheap from Staples today. Deals include a 4 TB desktop drive for $75, a 6 TB desktop drive for $85, and a 2 TB portable drive for $45.

Start by adding any of the above items to your cart. For the 4 TB and 2 TB drives, you'll also have to add a small filler item, like this 55-cent paper notebook. Finally, use the coupon code 17248 at checkout to get the full discount.

External drives are useful for backing up your personal photos and videos, and they can also provide storage if you have an over-the-air DVR setup such as Tablo or a Plex server.
 

One other coronavirus-related thought before we go: Over the past week, there's been a glut of stories on how to work from home, many of them offering the same useful but unsurprising advice. (Set up a separate work space, put on some real clothes, consider a second monitor or a lap desk, and so on.) I only have one thing to add, which is that if you are working at home, try your best to enjoy its upsides. Pace around the house if it gets your brain working, take your laptop outside if it's nice enough, and use our lunch break to play video games or watch Netflix on a TV. And if you've got Google Home or smart speakers on hand, play some music or ambient noise out loud instead of retreating to headphones.

Want to talk tech with me this week? Head to the Advisorator chat room at 2 p.m. Eastern this Friday. Use this link when the time arrives, or click here to join the email reminder list. Otherwise, just email me your questions and I'll answer them as soon as I can.

Until next week,
Jared