Technically, it’s not adding, it’s “moving” to another Home.
We like using voice commands through Google assistant to turn the television off (via Chromecast) – too lazy to reach for the television remote. However, we had unknowingly created a new home entity on a different Google account. Where we add our Chromecast seems to matter. As it turns out, the account on which we linked the Chromecast did not have Google assistant capability.
So we had to “remove device” from the home of the incorrect Google account (click on Chromecast, then the gear/cog icon, then “remove device”, then “remove device: remove from home, unlink”). Then we switch to the correct Google account (the one with the functional Google assistant) and click on the Chromecast, then “add to a room”, select the home (if multiple homes on hand), then “move device” and select/create a room.
This description of the menus current as of July 2022. I expect they’ll change it again in future when we attempt this again.
Adding a Chromecast is a simple and trivial exercise if we had but one account and one home. However, dealing with different accounts, different homes, the menus can be messy to navigate.
Also, had Google assistant worked from the other Google account, then the Chromecast could have stayed where it was. Having raised this question, we ducked off and found the answer on this page (also current as of July 2022).
Enabling Google Assistant to Access Data and Services from another Google Account:
- use Google assistant to “open assistant settings”
- make sure the primary account is active (see linked page for details)
- scroll down to the blue banner called “You”, click
- click “accounts”
- then “enable” assistant to access data and services from your preferred Google account(s)
One other thing, as we were adding our Chromecast, it turns out it was a first generation Chromecast which only worked on the 2GHz band and the wifi router had “band steering” on. As such, the router was managing both 2GHz and 5 GHz with such aplomb that the Chromecast failed to connect. We turned it off and configured the bands separately to successfully connect the Chromecast.
Good times.