How to Make Multiple Smart Speakers Work Together

Smart speakers have become so ubiquitous lately that you most likely have more than one set up at home. Maybe a Google Nest in one room and an Amazon Alexa in another, or more than one of each.

Whether you’re using smart speakers from Google, Amazon, or Apple, you can send audio to several speakers at once, configure them as stereo pairs, or even get your music to follow you from room to room.

Google Home/Google Nest

Google not long ago rebranded its Home speakers as Nest speakers, so you might have one or more of each—but they’ll still work together no matter what the label says. Speaker management is handled through the Google Home app for Android or iOS.

Open up the app and you’ll see all your Nest speakers listed, together with any other connected smart home devices like Chromecasts and Nest cameras. To put two Nest speakers together as a stereo pair, they need to be in the same room: Tap any speaker, then the cog icon, then Room to set this.

With that done, tap on the first speaker, then the cog icon, then Speaker pair. You then simply choose your second speaker, tell the app which one should act as the left and which as the right, and give the pair a name to identify it in the app.

This pair then appears as a single speaker in the Home app: You can cast audio to the speakers as a stereo pair from an app on your device, or play music through them both together via voice commands.

You can go further with a speaker group, which can include more devices and even Chromecasts. Again, tap a speaker and then the cog icon, then choose Groups and Create device group. Name your group (“kitchen” or “bedroom” for example), and you’ll be able to add other speakers to it through the same screen.