How to play YouTube audio on Google Home

Casting YouTube fully to a TV is quite simple but what if you want to play YouTube audio on Google Home speakers? Well, there are two ways to do this, via Bluetooth or by casting device audio to the speaker. Unless you want to use YouTube Music which is intended for audio streaming in the first place, there are some drawbacks to this. Still, it’s possible. We explain how to do it below.

Table of contents:

1. Use Bluetooth
2. Cast audio from the Google Home app
3. Cast audio on Chrome for desktop

Can I play audio only from YouTube on the Google Home speaker?

1. Use Bluetooth

The first way to play YouTube audio on Google Home/Google Nest smart speakers is via Bluetooth. All of them, starting with the first-generation Google Home, have Bluetooth connectivity and can work just like any Bluetooth speaker out there. For me personally, Bluetooth was always a bit sketchy, especially when compared to W-Fi casting. But, it’s an option and you can give it a go.

Here’s how to play audio from YouTube videos on Google Home:

1. Tell your speaker to enable Bluetooth. Just say “Hey, Google, turn on Bluetooth”. It should respond by informing you that the pairing mode is enabled.
2. Turn ON Bluetooth on your phone or computer. Look for the Google Home speaker in the list of available Bluetooth devices.
3. Pair with the speaker and open YouTube.
4. Play any video and the audio output should come from Google Home.

2. Cast audio from the Google Home app

This one is a better option. You can use the Google Home app to cast audio from your device. And, although the playback can be out of sync completely, it’s still a more reliable option. Once you enable casting, the course of action is the same as with Bluetooth pairing. You won’t be able to cast to speakers from YouTube directly, this one is reserved for devices with displays.

Here’s how to cast audio from the Google Home app:

1. Open Google Home.
2. Tap on the Home Speaker and tap Cast my audio.
3. Tap Cast audio.
4. Start casting.
5. Open YouTube and all audio from videos should play on the Google Home speaker.

Once again, the videos will be out of sync more times than not. Regardless of how good your network is. That’s just because speakers are not really optimized for this but rather for casting from audio apps like YouTube Music, Spotify, and others.

In regards to routines, to my knowledge, you can’t configure a routine to play audio from a YouTube video. It can play audio tracks from YouTube Music, though.

3. Cast audio on Chrome for desktop

Finally, if you want to play YouTube audio on Google Home from your computer, the best bet is to use Google Chrome. Again, if you access YouTube and try to cast from there, the Google Home speaker won’t appear on the list of available devices. Luckily, there’s the Cast option to the right of the Address bar where you can choose to cast audio from YouTube to your Google Home speaker.

An important thing to notice is that you need to be signed with the same Google Account you use on Google Home. So, open Chrome and sign in with your Google Account. Once you’ve done that, follow these steps to cast YouTube audio to Google Home:

1. Open YouTube and click on the Cast icon in Chrome, the one next to extensions and to the left of Music controls.
2. Select Sources and choose Cast Tab.
3. Click on your speaker in the list of available devices that support Casting.
4. Wait for the devices to connect and profit.

And that’s it. Are you aware of some other methods we forgot to mention? Tell us in the comments section below. Thank you for reading and we look forward to hearing from you.