The Google Home Max in our living room has been great for settling arguments ranging from the correct pronunciation of ciabatta to when some of our favourite shows are going to return to air, but it’s loud. Very loud.
I love having the volume turned up so we can yell questions (and hear answers) from the nearby kitchen, but at night when we’re sitting on the couch in front of that Max it’s responses can be a little too much.
We already have the volume permanently set at 50 per cent, but this week a CNET article pointed out a feature that works even better: Night Mode. I somehow overlooked Night Mode in the settings for the speaker, but it’s fantastic.
With it, you can specify specific times where you want the volume on the speaker to be lower. That way, I can set a “Night Mode” to kick in around 9 PM, when we’re typically in front of the TV (and that speaker) and go back to normal around 7 AM when we’re typically getting ready for the day.
For me, the bonus here is that I don’t have to manually tell Google to quiet down only to realise she’s too quiet to hear the next day when I ask a question from far away. The feature can also come in handy if your speaker happens to be located next to your baby’s room and you don’t want to risk an accidental late-night wake-up, or if you tend to want to ask Google questions after other people in your household have headed to bed for the night.
To get to it, open the Home app and then click on the speaker you’d like to set a night mode on. From the speaker’s page, tap the gear icon in the top right corner, and then select “Night Mode” from the next age of options. Toggle the feature on to bring up a calendar where you can schedule days and times for Google to be quieter than usual. You can set the max volume for the speaker to the perfect setting for you, and also adjust the brightness of your device’s LCD, if you happen to be using a Google Home Hub.
Also on this page, you’ll see a “Do Not Disturb” feature. That will block sounds from reminders, broadcast messages, and other notifications on the speaker while Night Mode is enabled. Toggle that on/off depending on your preference.
Once you have it set up, your Google Home will adjust its volume based on your personal preference, so you don’t have to handle things manually anymore, or in my case, get startled by the loudspeaker right beside your head.
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