Google Home Minis are one of the most popular smart speakers today.
Because the speaker connects to your device through voice commands, it is easy for any nearby smart device to join your network.
The good news is that you can keep that from happening.
Here are seven things you can do to stop others from controlling your Google Home Mini.
- Turn off cast media notifications.
- Turn on Guest Mode when you have people over.
- Set Voice Match so that the Assistant recognizes you.
- Turn off personal results in Google Home App.
- Set up parental controls.
- Reduce Voice Sensitivity or Disable Continued Conversation.
- Create a separate WiFi network for your Home device.
The rest of this article explains in-depth how you can carry out each of these steps to manage your Google Home fully to prevent other people from controlling it. Let’s get into it.
1. Turn Off Cast Media Notifications
It is likely that your Google Home Mini is now sharing every notification with other devices.
These notifications may include the ones you usually ignore on your devices and the personal ones such as doctor’s appointments or other calendar reminders.
Understandably, this can get pretty annoying because anyone with a smart device connected to your home will access them.
Turning off Cast Media Notifications can help you take charge of your Google Home.
You can go to your settings and turn off the cast media notifications to stop this from happening.
In addition, doing this will go ahead to halt all music and videos from YouTube and other media apps playing on your smart devices.
2. Turn On Guest Mode When You Have People Over
Google Home smart devices follow and respond to the commands given to Google Assistant through the user’s voice commands.
Guest mode means that if you have guests over, Google Assistant will not be able to tell the difference between your voice and theirs, allowing it to take any commands from them and follow through.
In your iOS and Android settings, go to recognition and sharing.
You should be able to locate this setting.
When Guest mode is on, even if Google Assistant records the other voices in the room, it will later delete that data, leaving only your voice as the one it solely takes commands from.
Now you will not have to worry about saving unnecessary voice data.
3. Set Voice Match So That The Assistant Recognizes You
Help Google Assistant help you by matching your voice to your Google Home App.
When Google assistant knows your voice, it is easy to take commands primarily from you.
Set up Voice Match on your device, open Google Assistant, and follow the voice set-up instructions where you will be asked to say “Ok Google” five times.
Please Note: The voice match option will be most effective when you use it hand in hand with the other steps you will see in this article. Just ensure that you have allowed the Assistant to recognize your voice.
4. Turn Off Personal Results in Google Home App
To reduce the risk of your privacy being breached by outsiders, go further by turning off your personal results in your Google Home app settings.
Open the Google App on your smart device.
Tap “Home settings” at the bottom of your screen, then tap “Features”.
Under the “Features” segment, you will then see “Personal results”, which you can proceed to turn off.
Now, you will no longer have to worry about everyone knowing when your next doctor’s appointment or date with a loved one will be.
5. Set Up Parental Controls
You can also set up parental controls for Google Assistant.
The function has features that can help you control the information that your children can access.
These include:
- Turning on Digital Wellbeing
- Using Google Family Link
- Activating YouTube Restricted Mode
- Using the “Pretty Please” command
The pretty please command, for example, will only have Google Assistant respond to or perform commands with a “please” or a “thank you“.
Any command made to Assistant without this will not be performed.
This command is only restricted to those with a Google family link feature.
6. Reduce Voice Sensitivity or Disable Continued Conversation
With a higher voice sensitivity, Google Assistant is most likely going to be more able to pick up even the slightest voices and respond to those commands or requests.
When this keeps on happening, every voice will trigger a response from your Google Home.
You can lower the voice sensitivity by tapping the device audio settings in your Google Home App.
You can then reduce the “Hey Google” sensitivity.
You can also prevent other people from controlling your Google Home Mini by turning off the continued conversation mode in your Home App by tapping Assistant settings.
This will stop the Assistant from addressing repeated commands or responding to follow-up conversations.
7. Create a Separate WiFi Network for Your Home Device
Your Home speaker device requires a WiFi connection to pick a signal, sync, and run your smart devices.
Anyone connected to this WiFi signal will, in turn, give commands to your smart speaker.
To avoid these interruptions, creating a separate WIFI network that you will call a “Guest Network” will keep your Google Home private to you.
Overall, this is the most complicated option, but you can seek further help on Google Nest Help.
How To Stop Others From Controlling a Google Home Mini: Key Takeaway
Google Home Minis are excellent smart speakers that you can use to make your digital life even more convenient, allowing your to run particular Google Home compatible smart devices.
However, it poses some risks to your privacy as others can access your device.
To stop intruders from controlling your device, you can tweak a few settings on the Google Home Mini or create a separate WiFi network.
You can further go on to disconnect the Home device in case it is not in use and only opt to turn it on when you need it.