Google continues to add more media and smart speaker integrations across its growing number of hardware and software products, and today YouTube TV support has arrived. Now, if you have a Google Home speaker — that includes the new Home Mini and Home Max that were announced earlier this month — you can use your voice to control YouTube TV broadcasts. You will, of course, need the YouTube TV app to be running on a Chromecast hooked up to your TV.
For those who may be unaware, YouTube TV is the video company’s over-the-top service that was first announced back in February. Similar to Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV costs $35 a month and grants access to local affiliate broadcast stations like ABC and CBS on top of roughly 35 cable channels. Since its official launch in April, YouTube has added a handful of new channels and expanded to dozens of new US markets.
Adding Google Home support was a natural next step, and it’s part of a strategy on the company’s part to more deeply intertwine its subsidiary media offerings with its own hardware and personal assistant software. Google just last week added Chromecast voice control for the Google Assistant mobile app, so you could use your voice and Android or iOS device to queue up videos and music to a nearby screen or speaker. That’s great for those who don’t own a Google Home. Yet for those that do, Google adding more integrations will make it even easier to just say out loud what you’d like to watch or hear and not have to worry that the right device is nearby and listening.