Google's new speakers finally pair wirelessly with Google TV

The new wireless pairing feature has been years in the making and is finally here with the launch of the Google Home Speaker and an update to the Google TV Streamer.

Google confirmed its plans way back in November 2020 but the feature never arrived for the Nest Audio speakers as originally intended.

Now, almost six years later, it has finally arrived with the new compact $100 Google Home Speaker, which can take over from your TV's built-in speakers.

- "Google Home Speaker now works together with your Google TV Streamer. You can pair up to two speakers with a Google TV Streamer to turn your living room into a mini home theater with spatial surround sound," said Google.


Spatial audio support
To be clear, it has always been possible to connect wireless speakers to Google TV devices via Bluetooth, but it is a subpar experience with low audio quality, often in mono, compounded by occasional latency due to Bluetooth's bandwidth limitations.

This new feature relies on Wi-Fi, which offers far greater bandwidth and range, making it possible to support stereo or immersive spatial audio, including Dolby Atmos, Google explained.

To get started you will need two of the new Google Home Speaker units and a Google TV Streamer media player updated to the latest firmware (UTTK.260317.003), which by the way also enables Thread 1.4.

Go to Settings -> Remotes & Accessories -> Google speakers. Alternatively, you can pair them via the Google Home app.


More to come?
The Google Home Speaker is not very powerful but hopefully Google will launch a larger version down the line. The feature largely mirrors Apple's HomePod integration with Apple TV 4K in both functionality and limitations – only two speakers can be paired to the TV at a time.

What about Google TV devices from Sony, TCL and other brands? Google hinted that more is coming, stating that the feature will not be limited to the Google TV Streamer.

- "Requires Google TV Streamer or other compatible smart device," said Google's footnote.