How to sleep easier with Google Home’s white noise feature

I’m one of those people who falls asleep a little easier if there’s quiet, steady noise around me. Cracking a window open isn’t really an option in winter or summer here in NW PA, so typically I just turn on a podcast in my room to get that fix of white noise. But a couple weeks ago, I learned that Google Home speakers can play white noise audio on demand. And I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounds — even on my tiny Google Home Mini, which has slightly improved bass compared the Amazon Echo mini. I’m sure the effect is better on a regular Home or the Home Max. This also works through Google Assistant on your phone in a pinch, and the sounds can be played on any Assistant-enabled speaker.

You can trigger ambient noise on Home with several different voice commands. If you don’t care which noise track Google picks, it’s as easy as saying “Hey Google, help me relax” or “OK Google, play ambient noise” or “white noise.”

If you want to get specific, you can ask Google to play audio ranging from a crackling fireplace to the sound of a running river. I’m a fan of the basic “rain” option, which sounds authentic enough to convince you that the weather outside has taken a turn. When requesting to hear a fan, Google plays what must be a heavy oscillating fan.

Here’s the full list of ambient/white noise that Google can play for you:

• Relaxing sounds
• Nature sounds
• Water sounds
• Running water sounds
• Outdoor sounds
• Babbling brook sounds
• Oscillating fan sounds
• Fireplace sounds
• Forest sounds
• Country sounds
• Ocean sounds
• Rain sounds
• River sounds
• Thunderstorm sounds
• White noise

Note that Google Home will only continue playing ambient sounds for a maximum of one hour. As far as I know, there’s not yet any way to set a timer in case you want them to run longer. Still, this is a really convenient feature to have for those of us who don’t like falling asleep to total silence. Alexa can also do similar things through installable skills or by playing a white noise track pulled from Spotify, but it’s not quite as seamless as Google’s feature.