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 February here in New York, so typically I just turn on a small fan 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 Dot in my living room. 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; I don’t think there’s any way to mimic my cheap desk fan from Target, but this also works.

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

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.