Got a Google Nest Mini? 5 Cool Things You Can Start Doing Right Away

If you just got a new Google Nest Mini, here are some cool and interesting things you can start doing to make use of your new smart home device!

So you finally jumped on the smart home bandwagon and picked up a Google Nest Mini to see what the fuss is about? Awesome!

As you might have already guessed, there are so many ways you can use your new smart speaker for information, entertainment, productivity, or skill acquisition.

Of course, you can’t try out everything at once. No need to worry, though, as this quick guide will help you get started with your Google Nest Mini. Buckle up as you’re about to journey into the magical world of smart home personal assistants!

What Is Google Nest Mini?

The Google Nest Mini is a compact, budget-friendly speaker fitted with Google Assistant that answers your voice prompts. Simply say "Hey Google" or "Okay Google" followed by a command, and you will have the power to control your smart home, play music, create alarms or reminders, and much more.

Launched in 2019, the Nest Mini serves as Google's response to Amazon's Echo Dot. It comes in a convenient rounded shape and eco-friendly fabric design composed of 100% recycled plastic. There are four color options currently available: chalk, charcoal, coral, and sky.

Compared to its predecessor (Google Home Mini), the Google Nest Mini delivers a bigger, more refined sound and twice as much bass to give you a genuine music experience. It also boasts enhanced voice recognition that can understand any verbal query or command even if you're across the room.

Another small but helpful tweak integrated into this affordable entry-level smart speaker is an indentation on the rear for wall-mounting, making it easy to mount the speaker anywhere in the room.

5 Cool Things to Try With Your Google Nest Mini

You just received your new Google Nest Mini, unboxed it in earnest, and plugged it in. What now? Here are a few quick and easy things you can do using only your speaker and phone.

1. Play Your Favorite Tunes

You most likely purchased a Nest Mini to serve as your smart assistant, ready to do your bidding and help control your household. However, you can still use it as a humble speaker, cranking out sounds in surprisingly high quality for such a tiny gadget.

Google Nest Mini's music capabilities may not be the most exciting trick up its sleeve, but it's one you will definitely use dozens of times a week.

To enjoy hands-free listening on your Nest Mini, you'll need to connect it to your favorite streaming service (Spotify, Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, etc).

2. Find Your Misplaced Phone

The pain of misplacing your phone is something we're all familiar with—and it can be particularly frustrating when you know it's somewhere in the house but can't locate it.

Whether you forgot where you set it down or it slipped into the sofa cushions again, your Google Assistant can find your phone for you in no time. It can make your smartphone ring even if it's set on silent or Do not Disturb mode. All it takes is a quick "Okay Google, find/ring my phone."

To make this lifesaving trick work, your phone needs to be:

• Turned on (duh)
• Logged into your Google account
• Connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data service
• Set up to use "Find My Device"

If you have several users on your Nest Mini, make sure you have Voice Match set up and that the right person (who lost their phone) is the one speaking to the smart speaker.

3. Set a Music Alarm

If you are not a morning person, you probably don't enjoy hearing your device's default alarm first thing in the morning. Your Nest Mini can genuinely make your mornings better by using your favorite song as your alarm.

To create a music alarm, you should first link your streaming service to your smart speaker. You can then request an alarm with a specific song, artist, genre, or playlist. Nest Mini automatically replaces the default alarm tone with your music of choice.

To configure your Nest Mini to use your favorite song for your alarms, simply say one of these commands:

• "Okay Google, set a Taylor Swift alarm for 4 AM every day."
• "Hey Google, set an alarm for Tuesday 7 PM that plays Driver's License."
• "Okay Google, set a K-pop radio alarm five minutes from now."
• "Hey Google, set a music alarm." (Google Assistant will then ask you when the alarm is for and what you want to be played.)

4. Use Your Nest Mini as an Intercom

With Google Nest Mini's Broadcast feature, you can finally live out your dream of playing walkie-talkie with your friend in another room.

This Google Assistant trick acts as your personal intercom system, allowing you to say anything to your phone/smart speaker and have the message broadcasted to another smart speaker. Now you don't need to scream like a crazy person to wake someone up, or even head upstairs to let your housemates know that dinner is ready.

Another cool thing about this function is that you can use it without setting up anything extra since most of it has already been taken care of when you bought your Nest Mini.

For this trick, you just need the speaker and your phone with the same Google account signed in on each of them. Verify that the speaker is not set to Downtime via Digital Wellbeing, too, else it won't play the message.

To use your Nest Mini as a PA system and, for example, announce the arrival of a package delivery, you can say the following commands:

• "Hey Google, broadcast: the package is here."
• "Okay Google, shout: the package is here."
• "Hey Google, tell everyone the package is here."
• "Okay Google, announce: the package is here."

Your message will then be broadcasted to all the Google speakers on your network.

Google also offers some preset key phrases to let your Google Assistant announce your message instead of speaking it yourself in your voice:

• "It's time to wake up."
• "It's time to leave the house."
• "It's time for bed."
• "Breakfast is ready."
• "It's lunchtime."
• "Dinner is served."
• "I'm home."
• "I'll be home soon."
• "The show is about to start."
• "Let's go to the movies."

5. Create Simplified Voice-Activated Routines

The Nest Mini supports "routines," which are voice commands you can configure to execute one or more actions with a single utterance.

This is particularly helpful if you're tired of speaking lengthy instructions, like playing your favorite playlist or radio station. Instead of saying that specific command, you can simply customize a "Hey Google, chill." routine to handle the task for you.

You can also initiate multiple actions with just a single key phrase. For instance, you can say "Hey Google, good night!" as a cue for your Nest Mini to set your phone to silent, adjust your room's temperature, turn off the lights, and play some relaxing sounds.

Your Google Nest Mini already features several handy ready-made routines for some of your most commonly used phrases. Each of these pre-programmed routines can still be customized, though. If you want to configure a custom command uniquely tailored for you, you can do it in your Google Home app via Assistant Settings > Routine.

Get the Most Out of Your Nest Mini

Like its predecessor, the Home Mini, the Nest Mini is a fantastic option if you finally want to start building your smart home. You get access to a personal assistant that can answer virtually any question, control your smart home devices, and let you stream your favorite TV programs.

Sleek and stylish, the Nest Mini offers plenty of other commands for your entertainment, too. It’s a wonderful tiny speaker with almost magical capabilities and boasting a terrific value for money.

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