Google's smart speaker can already play music via Spotify provided you have a premium account, but what happens when you don't?
Well, Google has finally added support for playing music via Spotify even if you only have a free account. During its I/O developer conference back in May, Google promised to make Home more open to music and video streaming services, and this seems to be a fulfillment of that, sort of.
As Android Police reports, free users can now use Google Home to play Spotify, but keep in mind that they're limited to playing playlists in shuffle mode, much like on desktop and mobile. You can still request Home to play a particular album, artist, or song, but doing so will only bring up a station of songs inspired by the original item you asked to play. Ugh, the pains of not having a premium subscription.
How To Add Your Spotify Account To Google Home
If you still haven't paired your Spotify account with the smart speaker, here's how: First, open the Google Home on your smartphone, and tap "music." Tap the radio icon next to the service you want, to set it as the default service. Tap on "link" and enter your Spotify login details to finish the pairing process.
How To Play Music
Once linked, you can start requesting for music. Simply say, "Hey Google" or, "OK Google" followed by the song name and the artist's name. Again, free accounts don't get certain features, such as the ability to pick any song you want, high-resolution audio, and unlimited skips.
You can also tell Google Home to "pause," "stop" or ask "What's playing?" to find out about the current track, which will be useful since free accounts are locked to shuffle mode. You can also set the volume levels by saying, "Set volume to" followed by the specific number.
It's not clear when Google plans to roll out the feature for everyone, although it has recently changed the Google Home support page to add Spotify Free, so perhaps that implies an imminent rollout. This should please Spotify Free users who own a Google Home, especially if they don't mind shuffle mode at all, and of course, the occasional ads.
Do you own a Google Home speaker? Still haven't switched to Spotify Premium? Tell us if this new feature is useful for you. Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
