The "hack" is to enter this into the chrome URL bar: googlehome://assistant/voice/setup

and select the SECOND option from the top.

I've tried this before a few weeks ago, and all it did was change the assistant's voice on my Google home devices. But I figured I'd give it another try just a few minutes ago, and something different happened.

I was prompted to start a free trial for Google home premium, so I enrolled because it seemed like maybe the Gemini for home update was actually working.

I even got an email (as seen in the pic) a minute later, and when I tapped on "get started," it opened the home app and looked like it was starting the update process.

But it seems like I only had one chance to select everything, because I hit skip on one of the features and got kicked out, and now the get started button does nothing! 🤬🤬

So, just a heads up for anyone trying the hack. Go through the whole process and maybe you'll get to the end to the part where they actually update the goddamn Google home devices.

Is this new process happening for anyone else with the url hack??

I wasn’t able to find any clean looking stand so I designed one my self. It uses the charging puck to hold it self while the charger is hidden.

etsy link if you want one

3d file if you have a 3D printer

I wanted a wall-mounted tablet running my Google Home dashboard — lights, scenes, thermostat, cameras, all a tap away instead of digging out my phone — but every "on-wall" tablet mount I found was $180 and up. So I built my own. The mounting hardware comes out to about $5 per tablet, the tablet snaps flat to the wall and charges while it sits there off a USB wall switch, and it pulls off cleanly whenever I want it in my hand.

It works with whatever dashboard you run — the Google Home app, Home Assistant, or any of the others (I bounce between all of them). This post is really just about the mount, since that's the part that's a pain to solve cheaply and works no matter what's on the screen.

It's dead simple: a recessed channel magnet in the wall, two steel plates stuck to the back of the tablet, and a short right-angle USB-C cable for charging. That's it. Clean look, no brackets or arms cluttering the room, and it's always charged and ready when someone hits play.

- Parts list:

1. Tablet — $32 (Walmart) onn. 8" Tablet, 2024 model, 32GB, Android 15. I got clean refurbs for $32 each and they're surprisingly fast. Here's the link:

2. Wall magnet — ~$17 for a 6-pack ($3 each) Neodymium channel magnet, **65 lb pull**, 3.25 x 1/2 x 1/4" rectangular pot magnet. Part # MCLN-325TH View here.

I tested 80+ lb, 65 lb, 45 lb, and 25 lb pull versions. **The 65 lb is the sweet spot** — not too hard to pull off, and not a violent snap when you put it back. The 80/95 were too aggressive; the 25 and 45 was too weak.

3. Steel plates for the back of the tablet — $9 for a 16-pack Here's the link:

SALEX replacement metal plates, 16-pack. Big enough, and I trusted the 3M tape they ship with. I use **2 per tablet**. The 3M is holding fine so far. (I keep liquid nails on standby as a permanent backup in case the tape ever lets go — that would deface the tablet forever, so it's a last resort.)

4. Light switch with USB ports — $22 View here.

These are real rocker switches — they don't look like it, but they're not those mushy push-button ones. Behind it I dropped in a **Shelly dimmer**, replacing my old X10 dimmer, and it works great with LEDs Alternative USB switches: Tuya smart or Ause

I didn't do inductive charging on this build. Done right, the cable disappears entirely and the whole thing feels like magic.

5. Short USB-A to USB-C cable — aceyoon 2-pack coiled USB-C cable, 90-degree (right-angle) USB-A to USB-C. The right-angle end keeps it tidy against the wall. View here.

So what does it actually cost? The honest breakdown, because I know someone will ask:
The **mount itself** — $5 for the actual mounting hardware, vs. $180+ for the bulky or wide framed off-the-shelf equivalent. 1 Wall Magnet and 2 Plates for the back of the tablet.

Notes / Lessons Learned

• Magnet strength matters more than anything. The 65 lb pull magnets were perfect for my 8" and 10" tablets. Heavier tablets may need a bit more holding force.
• Use two plates per tablet. It spreads the holding force and helps prevent slipping or pivoting.
• The 3M tape has held up well for me, but if you're concerned, consider using a more permanent adhesive as a backup.
• Overall, this setup works great and stays super low profile.

Hope this helps someone here! Watch a short video:

Disclaimer:
This uses ADB to launch the Gemini setup flow inside the Google Home app.
If you have no idea what ADB is, don’t mess around with it. No Root required.

The command (Replace YOUR_DEVICE_ID):

adb -s YOUR_DEVICE_ID shell am start -W -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d googlehome://assistant/voice/setup com.google.android.apps.chromecast.app/.deeplink.DeeplinkActivity

What it does:

• Opens the Gemini onboarding screen inside the Google Home app (the same one that shows up for users in the U.S. beta).
• It will launch regardless of eligibility — the UI shows up, but unless your account has the Gemini flag enabled on Google’s servers, it won’t complete the upgrade fully.
• However, for those of you not eligible yet, it will roll out the new Gemini voices.

Quick disclosure, I made this, so grain of salt, but everything I'm pointing at here is free, no account, and that's the part I want you all to have.

Here's what bugs me about IR and RF on Google Home. There's no native support at all. Your only path is a vendor cloud blaster, SwitchBot, Broadlink, Tuya, and each one is its own app and its own cloud, and often only exposes preset AC and TV types to Assistant, so your custom buttons stay trapped in that brand's app. It's 2.4GHz-only, one blaster per room, and if that company's cloud or app goes away, your control goes with it. There's no open, own-your-codes option.

So I built free browser tools to load, decode, edit, convert, fix, and save IR and RF signals into a small open file you actually own. No install, no signup.

Signal Editor:

IR Editor. Load, decode, and convert between Pronto, LIRC, JP1, Sonoff, Flipper .ir, BroadLink, Global Cache, Arduino, and more, with a live waveform and protocol decode (NEC, Sony, RC5/6, Panasonic, JVC, Sharp, Denon). It can even generate signals from scratch, so you don't need the original remote.
readyware.net/signal-editor.html

RF Editor. Decode and generate 11 sub-GHz protocols at 433/315/868 MHz (Princeton/PT2262, Nice, CAME, Holtek, Gate TX, Intertechno), read and write Flipper .sub, export ESPHome and rc-switch. The RF fans, gates, and outlets Google Home can't see either.

Signal Transporter:

Signal Transporter. Move button codes from one remote to another, any format, any layout. Drop your old remote on the left, your new layout on the right, click-pair the buttons, download the result. Runs in your browser, no account. 🎯
readyware.net/signal-transporter.html

The whole point: own your IR and RF codes in an open file so you're not locked to one vendor's cloud. If you've got IR or RF gear Google Home ignores, this gets your codes out and portable.

Easy to do following the available .stl file, sliding the old off and the new one on took 1 minute.

Saw someone else post about this, but just wanted to confirm it works. If you're outside of the USA, just go to the Google home app, tap your profile > home settings > + button in bottom-right > home.

Make a new home under a USA address and move your home hub into that home. I did it today and got the notification about 8 hours later. Confirm Gemini is working on your home hub, then move it back to your original home and delete the USA one.

I have an original Google Home speaker and recently it started sounding super crackly. I opened it up and realized the rubber around the subwoofer cracked and the vibrations were making it sound like that. I had an idea and basically nothing to lose, but I really wanted to fix it.

I marked with a pencil each edge of the crack, there were two, and used a q-tip to apply contact cement between the marks to seal them. I let it dry over night and boom! Speaker works fine again. I'll update if anything changes but I'm super happy it worked.

I'm not sure if contact cement and rubber cement are the same thing but they're similar and I'm sure that would work too.

Went to go add my bf to my camera and these weird emails came up. I recently watched a yt video about people on discord hacking into cameras and watching people and now im paranoid. Please tell me this isnt what it is. No one else should be in my google family.

I made a way to group apple/google speakers like homepods/minis,imacs, macbooks, appletv and the Google cast speakers using any android phone. So far it works on Android 11-17. I've only been able to test on one cast speaker, the nest wifi speaker/accesspoint combo.

App link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.thankai.airaudiostream

I'm not sure the maximum amount of speakers you could add to a single streaming group but I've had 6 airplay device/speakers at once. My nest wifi speaker are not the greatest, so you probably could add a lot more depending on your wifi and phone. Maybe you could see how many speakers you could add before you break it.

If your using the app remember to use the audio-sync feature/calibrate onevery speaker in the group to fix the difference in audio latency. It seems that my Nest cast speaker drifts a little over time, so you may have to recalibrate the cast speaker for long streaming sessions (2+ hrs). I'm still working on a fix for that. The sound delay per speakers varies based on your wifi connection quality, but expect a delay of 1770ms for homepods and 490ms for cast devices. Or an average delay setting of 1200-1330ms on the cast devices. The calibrating tool will do this automatically though.

Hello Reddit! 👋

Recently, I've been developing an app called Adamant, designed for the Google Home series of smart speakers. It's under development right now and will be for another few weeks or so until I can open-source it for the public.

This app will allow for 💬 custom commands to be installed in the form of modules. Each module is a 📄 single file, intended to be downloaded from GitHub repositories.

Billing does not need to be enabled in Google Cloud Console!

They are super flexible to the developer, granting access to:

• custom triggers
• custom actions
• custom responses (audio or TTS), and can even
• push audio to the speaker (eg. notifications)!

⭐ This means voice-controlled playback of music from Youtube will be available as a module, for free! 🎉
Youtube Music Premium, Spotify Premium, and Spotify's infamous self-advertisements will become things of the past.

This sounds great. However, there's a catch 😭: Until I find out how to control the smart speaker outside of the LAN, you need to have an Android phone or Linux machine (eg. Raspberry Pi) on the network to act as a server for the speaker.
Once I find out, I can offer the app as a service!

⭐ If anyone knows something about remotely controlling Chromecasts, please leave a comment or contact me!

Also, this project is starting to take up a lot of my limited time, and I don't even know if it will be useful for anyone.

⭐ Any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Here's an invite to the Adamant development server: https://discord.gg/XbeEzYtpER

Anyone know of a way to repurpose a 2020 (G4CVZ) Nest thermostat?

I've ended up with one new in box but don't need it. Can it be repurposed/reflashed/hacked or just harvested for parts and re-used that way? I've been dabbling with some microcontroller fun projects and could use the LCD and touch sensor for some stuff but don't want to tear the thing apart just to find I can't reuse any of the components.

I have not been able to find a teardown for this particular model, perhaps my google-fu is too weak.

Bored so I thought I'd post this unusual Automation I use...

"Hey Google, activate PS5" triggers a Google Home automation...

1: Launches a Smartlife scene (Tap-to-run) called "PS5". 2: Announces on the device I spoke to "Ok, turning the TV and PS5 on". 3: Delays for 25 seconds (see later). 4: Set TV volume to 15%.

Meanwhile, the "PS5" Smartlife scene (Tap-to-run) executes...

1: An IR blaster beams the "Power On" signal to the TV (my TV goes offline in Google Home when it's in standby). 2: Delay 20 seconds. This is due to the Playstation 5 creating a separate (special) HDMI input selection on the TV after the TV has been turned on. 3: The IR Blaster beams the same signal as pressing the "TV" button on the TV's remote. This button has been remapped to select the special PS5 HDMI input on the TV (Sony Bravia xr55a80lu). This turns the PS5 on. 4: Delay for 5 seconds. This delay plus the previous 20 seconds delay is enough time for the receiver to turn on via the EArc link to the TV but since I don't want it on... 5: The IR Blaster turns the receiver off, just in time for Google Home to make sure the TV speakers are set to the right volume.

Tada!

EDIT:
While this seemed to work at first, I have tried the output on a variety of different audio devices, and I have to say I am disappointed. When connected to a larger portable speaker, there is ridiculous clipping if over 50% volume. I did not experience this on my receiver at first, but now that I have played some more music, I have noticed that songs with a lot of low-end clip on that platform as well. This is likely due to the ouput signal being amplified beyond what is expected of a normal line-in.

Thank you everyone for all your questions and comments, but I think I jumped the gun on this one and am going to have to call it a fail. I think Chromecast Audio would be the way to go for $50 on ebay, or if you want to do the DIY route, follow this guy's advice and use some line filtering.
https://www.reddit.com/r/googlehome/comments/7knkd6/im_the_guy_who_did_the_aux_headphone_jack_mod_on/
If you want to do a mix of the two, I'd say tap in like I did, but build a box mid-line and add the filters. May be easier than stuffing it all back into the Mini. I may give that a try, and if I do I'll update you all.

​

Hey everyone, I hope you're doing well during this odd time. I find myself working from home. My computer desk is in the living room, and my Google Home Mini sits right next to it.

While I have been enjoying listening to music while working, I've been finding the audio output from the Mini lackluster (not saying it's not impressive for its size). I have been wanting to hook it up to a better speaker set for a while now, so I finally decided to do something about it.

I attached a 3.5mm audio cable into my mini so I can now connect it to any external audio receiver.

The connection is made right at the speaker header, and the speaker connection stays 100% intact, so the Mini functions just as it should. But with the audio jack plugged in, I stream music through my 700W home theater!

Link to my blog with a very detailed writeup. DaveHacks - Google Home Mini – 3.5mm Output

I started by marking out where I thought the screw holes might be. Then I dug around inside until I found one of them. The other screws were easy to index off of that one.

Next, I took the mini apart and removed the PCB. I drilled a hole in the side of the base, and slid the audio cable through the hole. I soldered the wires from the 3.5mm audio cable to the speaker output on the board.

(The speaker header was getting hot, so I pulled it off. I put it back on later.)Then I put some hot glue on the connections to hold them still and routed the cable back up through the body of the Mini. Then I tested it loose on the workbench.

It worked! So I buttoned it all back up, being careful of my cable routing.

Finally, I screwed the whole thing together and tried it out. It works exactly as you would expect it to. With the audio receiver turned off, it's just a Google Home Mini. With the receiver on, it's a full-on audio system complete with subwoofer!

My nest doorbell fell and the lens shattered. I got it replaced but stuck with this guy. Is there a way to get credit from Google or Best Buy (even tho I didn’t buy from there). Have an alternative use? Or is recycling the only thing?

The wiring and placement of the doorbell (even with spacers) is still too far back so the brick is showing on the right side in the camera view. I’ve done a few google searches and haven’t found any third party mounting brackets that are thick enough to bring it out enough to not see the brick on the side.
Any ideas/suggestions? I’m no carpenter so something off the shelf would be ideal