Google Assistant Easter Eggs: 10 Fun Things To Ask Your Nest Smart Device

Google is one of the best smart display and speaker brands out there. From the humble Nest Mini to the full-blown Nest Hub, the brand's devices cater to a wide range of users who want to make their homes or offices smarter. We all know what smart speakers from Google or Amazon can do: They can tell you about the weather, read out the latest news, play your favorite songs, control smart lights and plugs, and even act as a digital photo frame or make video calls if they have a display. While these tasks are certainly helpful, they're quite generic and popular. What isn't popular, though, is the fact that Google's Nest devices have several Easter eggs that you can unlock by asking Google Assistant certain questions.

Brands add specific Easter eggs to their products to make them more fun and engaging. We discovered that Amazon's Alexa speakers have Easter eggs hidden in various commands, which made us explore Google's smart home speakers, too. After trying a bunch of different commands and questions, we weren't disappointed at all! Right from playing games that exercise your brain to making a decision by tossing a coin, Google Assistant has some awesome Easter eggs that are going to transform the way you use your Nest speakers. Let's go over a few of the best ones and see how you can have some fun with your smart speaker.

Lots of consumers use Google's Nest devices — primarily the Nest Hub display — on a bedside table. This is mainly because a smart display is a good bedside clock that can display the time while also providing the ability to set alarms to wake you up in the morning. In fact, the Nest Hub (2nd Gen) also has support for sleep monitoring with snoring detection, which makes it an excellent device to have next to you while sleeping. If this isn't enough to convince you, a lesser-known feature or Easter egg on Google Assistant is that you can ask it to put you to sleep by playing some sort of white noise.

Several people find it difficult to fall asleep without some white noise in the background. If that's you, put your Nest speaker to good use by saying, "Hey Google, play white noise." Google will then start playing a random white noise to put you to sleep. But, if you want something specific, you can also say, "Hey Google, play the sound of rainfall." You can also ask it to play the white noise of a fireplace, a river, a forest, the wind, etc. The best part is if you follow up your command with "for 20 minutes" or anything along those lines, the white noise will automatically stop playing after the set duration rather than continuing all night.

Asking Google to play songs is pretty straightforward. You use the trigger phrase and name the song, artist, and album, and your Nest speaker starts playing the song from the chosen music streaming service. However, that can become quite monotonous over time. Why not ask Google to create its own track? You can prompt Google Assistant to beatbox by saying, "Hey Google, beatbox for me." Google then generates a unique beat and spits it out like it has been a hip-hop artist for years! You can simply listen to the beat or even record it to create your own track with the beat in the background.

What's also impressive is that Google creates a new beat every time you ask it to beatbox, so you're not stuck with the same tune every time. If you have multiple Google Nest speakers, a fun way to engage all of them would be to ask each one to beatbox simultaneously. You'll have a live jamming session in just a few seconds! Try running the command on a Google Nest Hub Max for the extra bass and thump. On a similar note, you can also ask Google Assistant to sing for you if beatboxing isn't your thing. 

There are situations in everyday life where you're torn between two options and are unable to decide which one to pick. It could be as simple as deciding which restaurant to go to with your friends or picking which flavor of ice cream you want to have on a hot summer day. In such instances, you can resort to using Google Assistant's coin toss Easter egg. Decide which side of the coin signifies what decision, and simply say, "Hey Google, flip a coin." For example, you can set chocolate ice cream to be Heads and vanilla to be Tails. You now have a definitive option to pick depending on the outcome of the toss on Google Assistant.

Alternatively, you can also play rock, paper, scissors with your Nest speaker to arrive at a decision. Play five tries and pick an option depending on who wins the most number of times. These are unique and fun ways to make simple decisions on a regular basis. Another similar command you can use — especially when playing board games with friends and family — is, "Hey Google, roll a die." Google Assistant will call out a number between one and six. So, if you don't have a physical die, this is a great alternative.

We've all asked Google Assistant to set reminders of certain events or meetings. Whether you want to be reminded of your favorite football game the following week or your kid's baseball game the week after that, Google Assistant has got you covered. But that's not all. Along with remembering events and schedules, your Google Nest speaker can also remember the location of your items and belongings. Let's say you tend to forget where you've kept your car keys. A helpful solution is to ask Google to remember the location for you. So every time you get back home and place your keys in your closet drawer, all you have to do is say, "Hey Google, remember that my car keys are in my closet drawer."

While it may not be hard to remember the location of objects you use daily, you may forget where you've kept a certain piece of clothing or item that you haven't used for a while. Once you ask Google to remember the location, you don't have to worry about its whereabouts. When you want to retrieve it in the future, all you have to do is say, "Hey Google, where are my car keys?" Google Assistant will point you to the correct location. This is an extremely handy Easter egg that more people should know about.

If you're a movie or TV show buff, Google shows it's no slouch either. Ask Google queries with references to pop culture and see it ace every question with sass! You can probably start off with, "Hey Google, do you like Star Trek or Star Wars?" and follow it up with questions like, "Hey Google, aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" It's always fun to converse with Google Assistant by asking it such questions since you hear witty responses every single time. There are several such questions you can ask your Nest speaker. A few other examples include, "Hey Google, who's the fairest of them all?" and "Hey Google, who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman?"

You'll find several such references related to popular movie series like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. Some popular musical references, like "Hey Google, who let the dogs out?" and "Hey Google, what is love?" also generate interesting responses. You can also ask Google to rap — the bars are definitely worth hearing! Try a few more popular phrases from movies and see what Google has to say.

Google Assistant has several built-in games that you can play when you're bored. In fact, a lot of games are kid-friendly so you can play them with your children too. A few favorites are Spelling Bee and Lucky Trivia. To trigger a game, all you have to do is say, "Hey Google, let's play Lucky Trivia," or whichever game you choose. As the name suggests, the Spelling Bee game involves Google reciting words for you to spell. After you attempt to spell the word, Google provides the correct spelling for you to verify if your spelling is correct. Lucky Trivia is a group game for up to five people — similar to a quiz show. If you're having a small gathering of friends and family, it's a good way to spend time together.

There are some other classic games like Musical Chairs, Planet Quiz, Math Workout, etc. that are also fun to play. Teach your kids to launch these games on the speaker, and they can also play their favorite games by themselves even when you're not around. It helps keep them occupied, gets them up to date with trivia, and even keeps them away from smartphones and tablets, which is also always a bonus. Speaking of kids, Google can even read out bedtime stories for children just the way it can play white noise for adults. Quite handy!

Remember how most of us used cheat codes in popular games when we couldn't get past a certain section or level in a game? Guess what — Google understands those references, and it's evidenced by the response you receive when you say, "Hey Google, up up down down left right left right B A Start." Sounds an awful lot like a cheat code, right? Well, it's exactly that. If you've played a lot of Konami games, you'll know exactly what we're talking about. Not only cheats, but Google also reacts to other popular video game references like, "Hey Google, for the Horde," from World of Warcraft or "Hey Google, is the cake a lie?" from Portal.

While these queries or Easter eggs don't necessarily serve a practical purpose, they're just fun to play around with. If you have friends over, it's a nice party trick to demonstrate what the Assistant can do. Kids who have played these games before and can understand references will also be surprised at the response, so you can use them accordingly.

One of the most frequently used features of not just a Google Nest speaker but pretty much any assistant or smart home device is turning lights on and off. If you have smart bulbs and lamps at home, it makes sense to use Google Assistant to turn them on with your voice as soon as you get home from work and use voice commands yet again to turn them off when you're lying in bed and it's time to call it a day. While the basic command we all use is, "Hey Google, turn on the bedroom lights," there are a few Easter eggs that let you use a fancier phrase. The outcome is the same, but it's a nice, fun way to interact with your Assistant, especially if you have guests over and you want to impress them or give them a chuckle.

Harry Potter fans would get this in a jiffy: "Hey Google, lumos maxima." This, along with a simple "lumos" or "nox," turns the light on or off, respectively. Similarly, a phrase like, "Hey Google, time to catch some rays" plays a happy tune and cycles through bright lights to make you feel like you're outdoors on the beach. There are certain thematic commands too that are fun to play around with. You can say, "Hey Google, make it spooky in here" during Halloween, especially if you have smart Halloween gadgets and lights installed in your house. Google will play spooky sounds and cycle through horror-themed lights to suit the mood. Then, there's "Let's party," which plays upbeat music and cycles through lights to replicate disco lights.

While a lot of Easter eggs mentioned above are quite utilitarian, this one's more of a way to pass the time when you're bored. Fire up Google Assistant on your Nest speaker and ask it random personal questions like, "How are you?" or "Are you better than Alexa?" Most of the time, Google will try to answer your questions with witty responses. You can also ask questions like, "What's your favorite color?" or "When is your birthday?" Think of Google Assistant as a friend and ask it any simple question that you would ask an acquaintance or someone you're meeting for the first time.

You can also ask the Nest speaker some edgy questions like, "Are you spying on me?" or "Do you listen to all my conversations?" The responses are always interesting, indicating that Google has trained the Assistant to respond smartly every time it is posed with such questions. So, it's also entertaining to listen to Google ramble about these topics. You can also compliment Google if it answers your query accurately or performs the required task in an effective manner — and you can hear your speaker blush with joy! At the same time, you can also correct it if it makes a mistake, and it will remember to give you the correct response the next time.

When you're done having fun with your Google Nest speaker, it's time to bid adieu. Say, "Hey Google, self-destruct," and watch your speaker blow up into pieces. Just kidding — nothing of that sort is going to happen! It's still a fun command to try, though. Say it, and see your smart lights blink red and orange indicating danger. Then, you'll hear some beeping noises from the speaker as though there's some sort of circuitry inside that has been activated. A few seconds in, you'll hear some sort of exothermic chemical reaction, and that's about it.

Again, this is one of those party tricks that you can use to scare kids or guests when they're over. Build up a serious story, mention to your guests how you've worked on a secret new formula that can be triggered by your voice, and execute the command to see them lose their minds! Use a lot of smart lights to amplify the effect.