How To Play Apple Music on Google Home

Posted by Jamie on August 29, 2019

Google Home has gone from strength to strength and is now a very useful and very
powerful home assistant. As long as your Home is updated, you can stream music via
Bluetooth making it possible for you to play Apple Music on Google Home. This
tutorial will show you how.

Also see our article

How To Add Devices to Google Home

The big brands don�t usually like cooperating but sometimes they just don�t have a
choice. They may be competitors but they also know that if they play too hard and
get in the way of our enjoyment of a product or service it will cost them in terms
of sales and popularity. Two companies not usually known for getting along are
Apple and Google.

Anyone who had a Mac or iPhone and preferred to use a Google Home instead of a
HomeKit initially had some hoops to jump though to get them working. A Google Home
update back in 2017 enabled a couple of new features, WiFi calling and Bluetooth
audio streaming support.

PLAY APPLE MUSIC ON GOOGLE HOME

The easiest way to play Apple Music on your Google Home is to use the built-in Cast
support your Google Home brings to the table. Since its launch nearly four years
ago, Apple Music has been unwilling to offer Chromecast support, but with the
latest 2019 updates, you can finally use Chromecast with Apple Music.
Unfortunately, as of August 29th, 2019, you�ll need to be on the beta version of
Apple Music, which you can join on Android here, or you can wait for the official
v3.0 of the application to roll out this fall. It�s unclear whether iOS users will
also be getting Chromecast support, but if they are, it should arrive with iOS 13
in September.

USING BLUETOOTH
Google Home is compatible with a bunch of music service providers. It�s own YouTube
of course, Chromecast, Deezer, Spotify, TuneIn, Netflix, Polk and Raumfeld are all
Google audio partners. Apple is not mentioned. Fortunately, through the magic of
Bluetooth you can make it happen.

You will need an iPhone or at least a subscription to Apple Music and a Google Home
to make this work. I describe using an iPhone but you can of course use any Apple
device with Bluetooth.

Turn on Bluetooth on your iPhone and on your Google Home.

Open the Google app and select Devices.
Select Settings and Paired Bluetooth Devices.
Select Enable Pairing Mode. Now the Google Home is listening for other devices.
Open your iPhone Control Center and turn on Bluetooth.
Wait for the devices to find each other and select the Google Home on your iPhone
and your iPhone on your Google Home.
Select Pair and you�re done.
Now you should be able to play music from your iPhone, select Bluetooth as the
audio and it will stream and play from your Google Home. Once paired, the two
devices shouldn�t need further configuration and should save all the details so you
don�t need to set it up again.

Next time, just turn on Bluetooth on both devices and play your music and you
should be fine.

OTHER WAYS TO PLAY APPLE MUSIC ON GOOGLE HOME

There are dozens of websites online showing you how you can download music from
Apple Music, rip its DRM and upload it all to Google Drive or Google Play Music. I
would suggest not doing this.

For one, it�s against Apple�s T&Cs to rip the music and remove DRM. While a pain,
that DRM is there to ensure the availability of the music. Depending on where in
the world you live, removing DRM can also be illegal.

APPLE MUSIC SUPPORT COMING TO GOOGLE HOME?

There are rumors out there that Apple Music may be soon supported on Google Home
devices. Macrumors.com has a recent piece where a user spotted an Apple Music entry
in a pre-release Google Home app. If this is true, it could mean the two competing
platforms are cooperating more to make life easier for its users.

This is good news. Google Home owners were left a little in the lurch when the news
that Apple Music was going to appear on the Amazon Echo. It seems the companies are
all trying to play nicely together.

For now, you can play Apple Music on Google Home using Bluetooth streaming. Until
Apple Music appears on Google anyway. Whether that actually happens or not is
purely down to speculation. That rumor is just that for now but until then, at
least we have a way to get what we want.

Know of any other legit ways to play Apple Music on Google Home? Tell us about them
below if you do!