Google’s latest Assistant update can let you move music and YouTube videos between devices such as the Nest Hub Max.
Derek Poore/CNET
Google Assistant is getting smarter and more useful around the house. In a new update Tuesday, Google announced that its digital assistant can now move music between Home and Nest smart speakers. It can also move YouTube videos between Chromecast and Nest smart displays.
The new feature means you can start playing music in your bedroom on a Google Home Mini and have the song transfer over to your Hub Max in your living room by saying “Hey Google, move the music to the living room speaker.” The same effect works with Chromecast and Google’s smart displays.
Those with a smart display can also move content to a different device using the touchscreen.
Google says the music feature will work with a number of different services including Spotify, Pandora and its own YouTube Music. On the video side, however, the feature is also currently limited to regular YouTube videos and does not work with YouTube TV or other video services.
Devices will need to be Google-branded to take advantage of the new feature. (Chromecast will require an actual Chromecast plugged into the TV.) This means it won’t yet work on third-party speakers such as Sonos or on TVs that run Android TV or have Chromecast built in.
Google tells CNET that it’s “working on bringing the functionality to additional third-party devices in the future.”
You also won’t be able to start playing music on a speaker in your home and then tell Google to transfer it to your phone as you leave the house, though the company says it is “always looking for ways to enhance media experiences on our devices.”
The new feature will begin rolling out “across all Chromecasts and Google Home and Nest smart speakers and displays” starting today.
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