The Google Home and other Assistant-powered smart speakers already work with several major streaming services, including Google Play Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, and Deezer. Unlike Play Music, Spotify, and Pandora, YouTube didn't work at all if you didn't have a premium subscription — until now.

Starting today, free YouTube Music access is available to all Assistant-powered smart speakers. However, it has the same limitations as free Spotify and Play Music subscriptions — it has advertisements, and you can't request specific albums, songs, or playlists. You can only search for artists ("Play Coldplay on YouTube Music") or moods/genres ("Play pop music on YouTube Music").

This isn't a major addition to the Google Home, as the same functionality was already available to anyone with a Google account through Play Music, but this does provide better integration for anyone already using YouTube's service. It also marks another step towards the inevitable sunsetting of Play Music.

Source: YouTube Blog