17 of the coolest things your Google Home can do (GOOG, GOOGL)

google home

Since last October, many millions of people have purchased a Google Home device.

Google sells three Home devices right now: The $50 Google Home Mini, the $130 Google Home, and the $400 Google Home Max, all of which have Google's artificially-intelligent Assistant built in.

Last month, Google revealed that it had sold more than one Home smart speaker device every second since October. According to our own calculations, that means Google sold at least 6.8 million Home devices during the holiday season.

Now that millions of people own Google Home devices for the first time, it helps to know what you can actually do with them. Some features are obvious — like asking for the weather — but others aren't so obvious.

Here are 17 of the best Google Home features:

1. Play white noise while you fall asleep.

I prefer rain sounds to standard white noise, so I usually say "Hey Google, play the sound of rain." The device obliges with a steady downpour.

The sound usually lasts until I fall asleep, but if you want to be sure it turns off at a certain point, you can also set a sleep timer.

2. Broadcast something to every Google Home device in your house.

If you have more than one Google Home device in your home, you can broadcast to every single one simultaneously, sort of like an intercom.

If you say, "OK Google, broadcast that it's dinner time," each device will ring a dinner bell. You can also say, "OK Google, broadcast that it's time for school."

The broadcast feature even works when you're not in the house. Saying, "OK Google, broadcast I'm on my way home" will trigger the devices inside your house.

3. Control your smart home.

At this point, Google Assistant can control more than 1,000 smart-home products from more than 100 brands like LG, Whirlpool, GE, and Nest. You can ask your Google Home to dim the lights, change the temperature, turn on a kettle or microwave, or even start your Roomba.

You can check out a full list of compatible products over on Google's blog.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider