How to play Podcasts with Google Assistant on your Nest speakers

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Whether we’re listening to news stories on the commute, weight loss stories at the gym, or gripping mysteries while preparing dinner, podcasts have become an essential part of life. But, it can still be difficult to get started and find new shows you’ll love. With Google Nest/Home speakers and displays, you can listen to podcasts on Google Podcasts or Spotify from anywhere in your home using only your voice. There are many scenarios when it makes perfect sense to listen to Podcasts — exercising, cooking, driving, or walking a dog.

To listen to podcasts with Google Assistant. Just say

• Hey Google, play Huberman Lab podcast

Listen to podcasts by topic

Looking to get a head start in your tasks and goals in the New Year? Turn to your Assistant for inspiration. When you ask the Assistant for podcasts about a certain topic—

• Hey Google, find a podcast about productivity

it’ll suggest relevant episodes for you. Or if you’re looking to get a head start in self-improvement and health, just ask,

• Hey Google, show me podcasts about habits and routines.

How Google Assistant enables a seamless podcast experience across connected devices

This works on both Google Nest/Home and Android devices. And Google syncs your subscriptions and episode progress across devices. So, you can transition seamlessly between your Google Nest/Home speakers and your Android device, and Google will pick up exactly where you left off, no matter which device you use. What does this mean? If you start listening to an episode of Words And Voices on your phone and then arrive home, you can ask your Google Home to “play the Words And Voices podcast” and it will pick up exactly where you left off on your phone. Since, your listening progress is synced everywhere, so you can pick up where you left off anywhere you use Google Podcasts.

Your podcast listening experience will be seamless across devices and contexts thanks to Google Assistant.

Interoperability is important here, because people don’t necessarily want (or have time) to sit down for an hour and listen to a podcast from start to finish on the smart speaker. However, if the transition into and out of that experience is more seamless, people will sit down and listen for whatever time they have. And when they’ve to leave to go to work or pause the show due to some interruption, they can pick it up later, exactly where they left off on whichever device is most convenient at the time.

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Having phones and browsers and smart speakers able to ‘hand off’ to each other makes it easier to listen to more audio content more often, makes it easier for average people to have great first podcast listening experiences, and eliminates some frustrating user experiences that plague podcast listening today because of the lack of “device interoperability.”

Google does its best to show you things it believes you’ll be interested in. Now you can add podcasts to the mix of content Google might recommend for you. This is where the Google Assistant, has exciting potential to be proactive about suggesting podcasts tailored precisely for you. For e.g., a smart speaker that suggests episodes it thinks you might like based on what you already listen to.

You can also ask Google Assistant with more granular commands that let you search and play by episode, topic, and even guests, so you can jump right into a specific episode. Search for episodes with three filters:

• Search by guests: “Hey Google, Play Kwik Brain with Jim Kwik episode with Chip Conley”
• Search by topic: “Hey Google, Play the Think With Google episode about The Modern CMO”
• Search by episode: “Hey Google, Play The Productivity Show episode about the personal systems”
• Hey Google, play last episode of Inc. Productivity Tip of the Day

People speak at different paces, that’s why it’s important to be able to set the playback speed to a convenient rate for you. Google Assistant will let you adjust podcast playback speed with these voice actions, say:

• Hey Google, play at 2x speed,
• Hey Google, play slower/faster,
• Hey Google, play twice as fast,
• Hey Google, play at half the speed

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To manage your Podcasts, there are two options, Android app and website, where all your subscriptions and episodes could be found. The recommendations are partially based on your subscriptions, and will continue to get more customized as time goes on.

So the next time you’re looking for a podcast about an old hobby, a rising star in Technology or Music industry, or anything else that piques your interest, your search will be easier than ever with Assistant.