Broadcast voice messages to your family

With Google Assistant, you can broadcast voice messages to your Google Family Group. These family broadcasts play on speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks in your home, and are sent as notifications and audio files to family members’ phones and tablets.

After the family manager sets up a Google Family Group, family members can broadcast audio messages to all their family’s devices. You can send and receive family broadcasts on:

• Speakers, Smart Displays, Smart Clocks, and Assistant-enabled docked tablets.
• Android phones and tablets.
• iPhones and iPads.

Learn how to broadcast without a Google Family Group.

What you need

• You and your family must be part of the same Google Family Group.
  • Learn how to create and manage a Google Family Group.
• Your Google Family Group must have 2 or more supported devices with Google Assistant.

Important: This feature is only available in the US and English.

Set up family broadcasts

If you’re the family manager of your Google Family Group, complete the steps that apply to your Google Family Group.

Step 1: Pick a primary home for your Google Family Group

If you have more than one home in the Google Home app, you must pick a primary home before family members can broadcast from their mobile devices to speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks.

1. Open your Google Home app.
2. Tap Settings Google Assistant Communication Broadcast.
3. Under ”Primary Home for family broadcast," tap the Select or Change button.

Tip: You can get to Assistant settings from the Assistant app or the Google app.

Step 2: Add Google Family Members to your primary home

Only family members who are household members of your primary home can broadcast from their phone or tablet to devices in your primary home.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Switch to the home you want to share.
3. At the top, tap Add Invite home member or Add person to home Invite person .
4. Enter the name or email address of the person you want to invite to your home.
5. Tap Next.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Learn how to manage home members.

Step 3: Add accounts managed with Family Link to devices

If you created an account for your child under 13 or the applicable age in your country, add your child’s account to each Google Nest and Google Home device linked to your primary home.

Important: You can add your child's account to most speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks.

1. Connect your mobile device to the same Wi-Fi network as the device where you want to add your child’s account.
2. Open the Family Link app .
3. Select your child.
4. Tap Manage Settings Google Assistant Add your child to new devices.
   • If you have multiple Google Nest or Google Home devices, check the box next to each device you want to add your child’s account to.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to sign your child in.
6. Hand your device to your child, and help them teach Google Assistant to recognize their voice.

Learn how Google Nest and Google Home work with your child’s account.

Step 4: Add devices to your primary home

Family members can receive and reply to family broadcasts on speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks that are linked to your primary home.

If you have a new device, learn how to set up your Google Assistant device.

To move a device between homes:

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. At the top, select the home that the device is linked to.
3. Touch and hold the device.
4. At the top right, tap Device settings   Device information  Home.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions.

You can choose which devices in your home to broadcast a message.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Settings Communication Broadcast.
3. Under “Broadcast on home devices,” choose a home.
4. Choose which devices will broadcast messages.

Step 5 (Optional): Allow guests to broadcast to your Google Family Group

Important: During a family broadcast, your home devices might show or announce your Google Family Members. Tell your guests who's in your Google Family Group so they know who receives their broadcasts.

You can choose whether people whose voices Google Assistant doesn’t recognize can broadcast messages to your Google Family Group from your speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, say "Hey Google, open Assistant settings." 
2. Tap Communication Broadcast.
3. Turn on Family broadcasting for guests.

Set up & manage family broadcast on mobile devices

To receive and reply to family broadcasts on a phone or tablet, the family member must:

• Sign in with the same Google Account used to join the Google Family Group.
• Install the Google Assistant app or the Google Home app and turn on notifications.

Turn on mobile device and app notifications

You can get family broadcast notifications from the Google Assistant app or the Google Home app. For the app that you want to get notifications from, you need to turn on Android notifications for that app and turn on app notifications.

Step 1: Turn on Android notifications

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Settings app .
2. Tap Apps & notifications Notifications.
3. Depending on the app you have, turn on notifications:
   • Google Assistant app: Turn on Assistant  or Google .
   • Google Home app: Turn on Home .

Tip: If you don’t find the app you want to get notifications from:

1. On the “Notifications” screen, under “Recently sent,” tap See all from last 7 days.
2. At the top, tap Down arrow All apps.

Step 2a: If you have the Google Assistant app, turn on app notifications

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google app .
2. At the bottom, tap More Settings Notifications Notifications.
3. Under “Assistant,” turn on High priority system notifications.

Step 2b: If you have the Google Home app, turn on app notifications

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Home app .
2. At the bottom, tap Home Settings .
3. Tap Notifications General notifications.
4. Turn on Calls and messages.

Turn broadcasts for your mobile device on or off

Tip: If you don't want to send and receive broadcasts on your phone or tablet, you can turn off broadcasts for your personal devices. This setting applies to all of your personal devices.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, say "Hey Google, open Assistant settings." 
2. Tap Communication Broadcast.
3. Turn Broadcast on personal devices on or off.

Broadcast a message to your Google Family Group

Say "Hey Google," then say:

• "Tell my family [message]."
• "Broadcast to my family [message]."

Tip: When you reply to a family broadcast, your message is sent to your Google Family Group. To check who’s in your Google Family Group, say "Hey Google, who's in my family group?" or go to families.google.com.

For example, you can say:

• "Hey Google, tell my family, I’ll be 30 minutes late."
• "Hey Google, broadcast to my family, how about pasta for dinner tonight?"

Learn how to broadcast without a Google Family Group

You don’t need to be part of a Google Family Group to broadcast messages.

• Guests can broadcast messages from your speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks in your home to your Google Family Members.
  • Learn how to allow guests to broadcast to your Google Family Group.
• You can broadcast messages to all your speakers, Smart Displays, and Smart Clocks in your home. You can also broadcast to a specific device or room.
  • Learn how to broadcast in your home.