Google Home FAQ

bk

Table Of Contents

• What is Google Home?
• Can I buy a Google Home in Ireland?
• How do I set up my Google Home?
• How do I get the Google Home app working properly in Ireland?
• Will I be able set my home and work location to my home in Ireland?
• Will I be able to ask from commuting times for address in Ireland?
• Will I be able to ask it the weather for my location?
• Will I be able to play Irish and UK radio stations on it?
• Will I be able to play Spotify Premium on it?
• What other music services does it support?
• Can I play music on it from my phone using Bluetooth?
• Can I plug it into my Hifi, AV receiver or other high end speakers?
• Can I connect Google Home to other Bluetooth speakers for better audio quality?
• Does Google Home have a cheaper alternative similar to Amazon Echo Dot?
• What Home Automation devices does it support?
• Can I make calls via Google Home (like a speaker phone)?
• Can I send text massages via Google Home?
• Can it stream music to Chromecast Audio?
• How do you get streaming to Chromecast Audio's in Ireland?
• Can you play your own music that you have uploaded to Google Music?
• Google Home in the US comes with 6 months of free Youtube Red, does that work in Ireland?

What is Google Home?

Google Home is a device that includes a speaker and microphones that sits in a room (e.g. living room, kitchen, bedrooms, etc.) and includes Google Artificial Intelligence that can respond to your voice commands, to answer questions, play music and control home automation devices like thermostats and lights.

Can I buy a Google Home in Ireland?

No, Google Home is currently only available in the US. However if you can buy one while in the US or import one into Ireland, then it mostly seems to work very well in Ireland with minor tweaks.

How do I set up my Google Home?

You use the Google Home app to set up the Google Home. See the next questions for more details to get it to work properly in Ireland.

How do I get the Google Home app working properly in Ireland?

On iPhone at least, the Google Home app only partly works in Ireland. In order to get it working fully, you need to temporarily change the iPhones region to US, here is how you do that:

1) Go to iPhone Settings
2) Go to General
3) Go to Language and Region
4) Change iPhone Language to "English (US)"
5) Change Region to "United States"

You will now be able to fully set up the Google Home. Once you are finished configuring it, you can then change it back to Ireland.

Will I be able set my home and work location to my home in Ireland?

Yes, any address that works in Google Maps (which is most) can be entered.

Will I be able to ask from commuting times for address in Ireland?

Yes, you will get much the same results as you would get from Google Maps.

For instance if you set your home and work address you can ask it:

"How long will it take to get to work [by walking/cycling/public transport]?"

Note it defaults to car journey times, but you can also specifying walking/cycling/public transport and it will adjust the result accordingly as you would get on Google Maps.

You can also ask it questions like:

"How long will it take to get to Cork from O'Connell Street Dublin?"

Will I be able to ask it the weather for my location?

Yes, for instance you can ask it the following and it will give you the result for your set home location:

"what is the weather like?"
"what will the weather be like tomorrow?"
"what is the temperature?"
"will I need an umbrella?"

You can also ask the weather in different locations:

"what is the weather like in Cork"
"what is the weather like in New York"

Will I be able to play Irish and UK radio stations on it?

Yes, tune in works very well on it, for instance you can simply ask it:

"play RTE 2FM"
"play Newstalk"
"play BBC Radio 1"

However unforunately RTE Radio 1 doesn't currently work.

Will I be able to play Spotify Premium on it?

Yes and it works very well. For instance you can ask it:

"Play rock"
"Play music"
"Play playlist Topsify UK Top 50"

What other music services does it support?

It also supports Google Music and Youtube Music, however I don't have these services myself, so I can't confirm that they work yet. Will update this guide once confirmed.

Can I play music on it from my phone using Bluetooth?

No, Google Home doesn't support Bluetooth. However if your apps support Chromecast Audio, then you can use that to cast audio to your Google Home.

Can I plug it into my Hifi, AV receiver or other high end speakers?

No, Google Home has no audio out port. However you can indirectly play music from Google Home out of better speakers by using Chromecast Audios attached to speakers. However there is currently a bug with Chromecast Audio working in Ireland, see below for more details and a work around.

Can I connect Google Home to other Bluetooth speakers for better audio quality?

First of all, Google Homes audio quality is pretty good, probably as good as most Bluetooth speakers. But in case you have really high end ones, then the direct answer is NO as Google Home doesn't support Bluetooth. However if your Bluetooth speakers also have an audio line in, then you could indirectly use Chromecast Audio to cast (stream) the audio from Google Home to the bluetooth speaker via Chromecast Audio.

Does Google Home have a cheaper alternative similar to Amazon Echo Dot?

No, not for the moment.

What Home Automation devices does it support?

For the moment the list is short, but likely to grow in time:

- Philips Hue (lighting)
- Nest (Thermostat)
- Smartthings (lights, security systems, etc.)
- IFTTT

Can I make calls via Google Home (like a speaker phone)?

No support for this for the moment.

Can I send text massages via Google Home?

No, not for the moment.

Can it support multiple accounts? For instance different Spotify accounts, todo lists, calendars, etc. for different family events?

No, not for the moment.

Can it stream music to Chromecast Audio?

In the US yes, but there is currently a bug with this feature in Ireland. See below for more details.

In the US, you can stream music from your Google Home, to multiple Chromecast Audio's, to create a multi-room audio system similar to Sonos.

How do you get streaming to Chromecast Audio's in Ireland?

Unfortunately streaming to Chromecast Audios isn't working in Ireland. The reason for those is that the Chromecast Audio's need to be upgraded to Firmware 1.21 in order to get this functionality, but this firmware update hasn't been rolled out to Ireland yet and they are currently stuck on firmware 1.2.

There is a work around however. If you use a US VPN service and connect your phones and Chromecast Audios and then reboot them, they should then receive the required firmware upgrade.

Can you play your own music that you have uploaded to Google Music?

Sort of. Google Music allows you to upload up to 50,000 of your songs to their service for playback, but at the moment this is only partly working with Google Home.

You can't play songs you have uploaded by name, artist or album, but you can add them to a playlist and then play that playlist on Google Home.

Google Home in the US comes with 6 months of free Youtube Red, does that work in Ireland?

No, Youtube Red service isn't currently available in Ireland and thus you can't make use of this deal.

kciaran

Great list - I LOVE mine and even find the wife and kids using it extensively - high praise as they don't do tech a lot of the time.

The RTE Radio 1 thing is driving me barmy though - cannot figure out how to do this by voice alone and there doesn't seem to be any decent explanantion for it.

I am sure it will eventulally though

darth_maul

Can someone try saying "play 88.5 RTE radio one on Tunein radio"
This works with google now on android

kciaran

Yup that works - well done and thanks.

What a faff though compared to

"Play 2fm"

which works perfectly well.

Cheers

Ciaran

PS

"Play 88.5" also works

darth_maul

kciaran wrote: »

Yup that works - well done and thanks.

What a faff though compared to

"Play 2fm"

which works perfectly well.

Cheers

Ciaran

PS

"Play 88.5" also works

Cool I can try get one now, that was a major stumbling block

bk

Been playing around with it tonight and have learned lots of new things about it.

First, it seems the Chromecast Audios have now gotten the update, without the need for the VPN trick. Working well now for multiroom audio.

Set up IFTTT and it seems to be working great. I've created a bunch of IFTTT apps to control my Logitech Harmony and can now turn off tv, turn on tv, turn on now tv, turn on shield tv, turn on chromecast audio (along with AV and speakers), etc.

I also have a Nvidia Shield TV, which is an Android TV and Google Home works with it, I can say:
"Turn on Shield TV" (IFTTT -> Logitech Harmony)
"Play <video name> on TV" and yup it will start playing the video from youtube on the shield TV.

Will the video is playing you can then say "pause video", "resume video", "stop", "next video", etc.

It is a cool demo to impress the inlaws, though I admit it is off only limited real use, at least for now. In reality you are going to browse youtube with the remote, but it does come in handy when playing a play list and you are skipping past videos/songs, etc.

I've gotten it working partly with my Netatmo Termostat via IFTTT. Unfortunately, the Netatmo IFTTT channel is a little limited, you can't ask it for it's current temperature, target temperature or if the boiler is on, nor can you set it to a specific temperature x that you define by voice.

However so far I've created two IFTTT recipes:
- Turn boiler * on - sets the thermostat to 22c for 2 hours (more then hot enough for me, by the way you can adjust the temperature and the length of time when setting up the recipe).
- Turn boiler off - sets the thermostat to it's default schedule mode, which in my case is pretty conservative and usually means off.

* I use the word boiler, as heat seems to cause issues as it is what expects Nest to be using I think.

I haven't created them yet (don't think I really need them), but it also looks like you can get it to set to away mode, frost-guard mode, therrmostat off and switch schedule.

Sp pretty good, but more limited then what the Echo can do with Netatmo and much more limited then Siri. But hopefully it will improve when Google officially open up the developer API n December.

I found you can change the colour of Philips Hue lights by saying:
"Change <light/room name> to red"

the one catch is it is hard to set them back to white! It seems you have to say "soft white" of "bright white", but even then, it doesn't seem to be understanding my accent well and is only working about 1 in 4 times for setting white.

Anyway, overall pretty cool so far

bk

Haha, I've created a IFTTT applet where the other half says "Food is ready" and I get a notification on my phone!

BoardsMember

Thanks for the feedback bk.

Have you tried using scene names for changing the light colours with voice? Or tried dimming/un-dimming lights with voice?

I'm trying to decide between GH and Echo, had decided GH based on your feedback re the radio stations, but if Hue is not great with it then I might think about going Echo.

bk

BoardsMember wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback bk.

Have you tried using scene names for changing the light colours with voice? Or tried dimming/un-dimming lights with voice?

I'm trying to decide between GH and Echo, had decided GH based on your feedback re the radio stations, but if Hue is not great with it then I might think about going Echo.

Scenes don't currently directly work, but I believe you can get scenes working indirectly via IFTTT. I haven't tried yet, but I'll try this evening.

Yes you can dim/un-dim lights by voice, with a variety of commands:
- "Dim living room lights" - I think it sets it to 40%
- "Set living room lights to 20%" - Absolute
- "Dim living room lights by 20%" - Relative

Setting colours works easily and well too:
- "Set living room lights to red"
- "Set living room lights to blue"

It is only setting them back to white that I'm having a little bit of difficulty with. I figure I can work around that by using scenes via IFTTT.

On the whole despite this one issue (and lack of direct scene support) on the whole I think GHomes support for Hue works better then Echo due to slightly better voice recognition. Even though I've both the GHome and Echo in the same room, I'm now using GHome to control the lights.

BoardsMember

Thanks bk, that's really helpful input, much appreciated.

BoardsMember

If I pick pne up in the States, presume all I need is a plug adapter?

bk

BoardsMember wrote: »

If I pick pne up in the States, presume all I need is a plug adapter?

Yes, plus change your phone region to US while setting up, all detailed in the FAQ above.

BoardsMember

Hi folks - has anyone come across reliable smart sockets like this that can be controlled by GHome?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Control-Anywhere-HS100-UK/dp/B01I3ZCBFK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479748132&sr=8-1&keywords=wireless+plug

Something that could be voice activated for those hard to reach places would be great.

bk

Belkin Wemo plugs supposedly work with GHome indirectly via IFTTT.

Also any smart plugs that work with the smartthings hub * as GHome supports the smartthings hub.

* Note you will obviously also need a smartthings hub.

stesaurus

For anyone caught out ordering a Home before they went down to $99 there may be a chance. I rang Best Buy yesterday and they told me they would price match themselves and refund back the $30. Just need to ring them back on Monday as they are too busy to process at the moment.

I ordered one 2 weeks ago and have a friend bringing it over before Xmas. Between this and all the Hue stuff it's going to be a fun Xmas!

Skerries

just got mine today so going through the usual things, have set up tunein and Spotify and linked the chromecast

commands list

some funny commands

namloc1980

Any ideas on how to get one of these to Ireland?

albob

Hi,
I know there is a FAQ thread but I'm guessing that that should be kept "clean".
However thanks to that thread I learned that I can get RTE Radio 1 to work by asking for "88.5 RTE Radio 1". Happy Days...except that now Newstalk does not seem to work any more. It did when I first got the Home, but now it just tells me that's it's either not available or does not exist. Does it still work for others?
Thanks

Orion

darth_maul wrote: »

Can someone try saying "play 88.5 RTE radio one on Tunein radio"
This works with google now on android

I just tried this on the Echo Dot and it worked too. Haven't got a GH.

OldBean

I'm heading over to the US next month and pretty tempted to bring at least one of these back. What'll I need in terms of power? Does it take a standard 9v or something more specific?

Is there anything else I'll need to play about with to get it working here in Ireland?

Do they need to be directly connected to a router like the Hue bridge? It'd be great to have one upstairs as well as downstairs. Or is it worth just getting the main one. It'd be great if they released an equivalent to the Dot.

And lastly, I wonder how long it'll take before someone makes it sound like the computer from Star Trek?

bk

You just need a us to uk plug adaptor. All your other questions are answered in the Google Home FAQ.

darth_maul

albob wrote: »

Hi,
I know there is a FAQ thread but I'm guessing that that should be kept "clean".
However thanks to that thread I learned that I can get RTE Radio 1 to work by asking for "88.5 RTE Radio 1". Happy Days...except that now Newstalk does not seem to work any more. It did when I first got the Home, but now it just tells me that's it's either not available or does not exist. Does it still work for others?
Thanks

for newstalk you could try " newstalk 106" or "106.0 newstalk"

OldBean

bk wrote: »

You just need a us to uk plug adaptor. All your other questions are answered in the Google Home FAQ.

My bad.

bk

OldBean wrote: »

My bad.

Oh, it is no bother at all, just no point in covering the same ground again when it is there in the FAQ. Hope you enjoy it, it is a fantastic toy.

OldMrBrennan83

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bk

It depends completely on what you like and what you plan to do with it.

Like internet radio or music (and willing to subscribe to a premium service like Spotify), then a most have, no argument at all, absolutely brilliant IMO.

Like Home Automation and have or willing to invest in some like Hue, Harmony, Nest, etc. Then yes, it is a brilliant way to access home automation tech, far more convenient then using the phone.

Not interested in either of the above, then yes it mightn't be worth it for now. Still useful, but maybe harder to justify the cost.

However I have to say this all reminds me of when I got a iPhone 3g, I know that it was the future and everyone would have one within a few years. I'm certain every home will have one of these in a few years.

What is even more impressive is that they are much more polished out of the box on day one then the iPjone 3g was.

albob

Regarding Newstalk, I have tried 106 Newstalk, 107 Newstalk, 107.4 Newstalk but none work for me. Does it currently work for anyone else?

I love it, but it can be a bit strange at times. I know Google acknowledge it has issues plays specific songs but when I ask for one particular song (I wish it could be Christmas Every Day by Wizard - Don't Ask!!!) it jumps between the original, a karaoke version, and 'its not available in your region'. Its interpretation of what i said is the same every time.

OldMrBrennan83

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Graham

Patww79 wrote: »

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That and there's no saying what Google have planned for the massive amounts of data they're collecting from all this.

Heating breakdown = Adwords for plumbers and gloves.
Home alone watching TV on a Friday night = Adwords for Tinder.
Sudden increase in utilisation of Microwave oven = Adwords for divorce lawyers

OldMrBrennan83

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bk

albob wrote: »

Regarding Newstalk, I have tried 106 Newstalk, 107 Newstalk, 107.4 Newstalk but none work for me. Does it currently work for anyone else?

Just saying "Play Newstalk on tunein" works fine for me, just tried it now, newstalk drive on in the background now.

Maybe you don't have your locatino set in the Google Hoem app?

Patww79 wrote: »

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No problems playing playlists on spotify for me. I just tried about a dozen of my spotify playlists and 100% success rate!

Much better then Echo's, I don't even have to get the name exactly correct. It can guess what I mean from my saved playlists and my recently played playlists. I have to say very impressive.

I just say: "Hey Google, Play Rock Solid Playlist"

Maybe accent?

albob wrote: »

For home automation, it may be handy in the future if partnerships are expanded but Google are always full of promises and then get their head turned by the next project.

That's actually my biggest worry with this, that Google will have it abandoned in 6 months time.

First of all it already supports lots out of the box, it supports most of the home automation industry with it's IFTTT and Smartthings hub support out of the box. By far the two most well supported integration services.

It can control my lights (on/off/dim/colour), my TV/AV setup, my heating system. In fact, it can do everything that my Echo can do (yonomi being the one exception) and that has been out two years!

In fairness GHome has only been out about one month and I've repeated many times that Google are opening up the API in December. Companies won't need to partner with Google, they can just write to the API and publish their integration. There is going to be a flood of integration and "apps" once it opens up.

I do understand your concern about Google dropping support down the line. They certainly do have a habit of that and I do have that concern about Nest. However I do honestly believe this is different. The API they are opening up isn't specifically for Google Home, it is the API for Google Assistant, the AI that runs on Google Home, but also the API that is baked into Android and on all new android phones. This is very much at the heart of what Google does and I don't think it will be dropped, it is the obvious extension of Google search which is Googles money maker (via ads).

BTW If you do want to get rid of your GHome, I'll happily buy it off you in end of January/start of February.

bk

Here is the developer program for Google Assistant (and by extension GHome):

https://developers.google.com/actions/

OldMrBrennan83

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bk

Patww79 wrote: »

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That isn't going to change. The hubs are necessary.

I've given up on the dream of one box that everything integrates into and so have most people who are interested in HA tech. Just too many different "standards" and too many different companies wanting you to use their own approach. Also the "All-In-One" boxes just end up far less reliable then the dedicated ones.

Instead better to integrate everything in the cloud with services like IFTTT and yonomi.

Having said that, having multiple boxes really isn't a big deal. You don't need to have the hubs around the house, just pile them all up next to the router. Easily hidden away under the stairs, etc.

BTW If you want "wifi" double sockets, then lightwaverf have smart double sockets, though yes, they do require a hub.

I've found IFTTT to be remarkably stable and reliable, just as good if not better not the native Alexa skills on the Echo.

And as I said, I expect massive amount of support to come for third party companies over the next few months.

OldMrBrennan83

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bk

Patww79 wrote: »

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https://ifttt.com/lightwaverf_power
https://ifttt.com/lightwaverf_lighting

Though I don't have lightwaverf myself, so I can't test it. They also have an Alexa skill for the Echo.

OldMrBrennan83

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bk

Patww79 wrote: »

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Just search for "lightwaverf ifttt" in google or similar if you want to check if any device is supported in IFTTT.

Patww79 wrote: »

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Rumour has it that GHome was rushed to market to be released in time for Christmas and to not leave Echo get too far ahead.

If true, it is remarkable how polished it is out of the box. It is far more polished then Echo and that has been out 2 years in the US!

I'm certain they are rushing to improve reminders, calendars, etc. Remember, this is Google Assistant, so it also effects GA built into Android phones, Allo, etc. as well as GHome.

I suspect the poor Googlers working on this away won't be having a very nice Christmas holidays given the pressure they will be under to get this sorted

OldMrBrennan83

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albob

bk wrote: »

Just saying "Play Newstalk on tunein" works fine for me, just tried it now, newstalk drive on in the background now.

Maybe you don't have your locatino set in the Google Hoem app?

I have home and work set to locations in Ireland. Language is set to English (US) but not much we can do with that. Its interpreting my speech as "listen to news talk on tunein", and other than newstalk is separated into 2 words I think its about as correct as it can be...so there must be something else going on. It was working before so there's obviously something gone awry.

Ah well....maybe it will just as suddenly start working again.

OldMrBrennan83

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rolion

Hi,

Why is this topic sticky ?
Do we really need that this system to have access inside of our home as well !?

I guess we have to blame only ourselves...
Enjoy the sharing...and their results !

OldMrBrennan83

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degsie

rolion wrote: »

Why is this topic sticky ?

I do think it odd that this got stickied whereas the more popular Echo didn't.

rolion

Patww79 wrote: »

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Tinfoil ... just finishing watching last episodes from Mr. Robot !
Last night,my kids and I watched "Snowden" and guess whats next... "Enemy of The State"

And do yourself a favour: read here !

Enjoy it...the "new" is around the corner.

OldMrBrennan83

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albob

Patww79 wrote: »

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Ah great. This worked for me too. I had been trying "One hundred and six" , and "One-Oh-Six" (I know...stupidity on my part for this one in hindsight) but "One-Zero-Six" works for me.

Thanks

bk

I think this thread was stickied by mistake. I think it was the:
"Start Here - FAQ's for Google Home, Amazon Echo, Philips Hue, LightwaveRF, Ring, etc"
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057674494
thread that was going to be stickied, as it points to all the FAQ's and is a good starting point for someone new to this forum.

Also this thread was badly merged. It was originally called "Google Home FAQ" but the title got renamed badly when merged with another thread on Google Home.

I've pointed all this out to the mods and I'm sure they will sort it when they get a chance.

OldMrBrennan83

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Shedite27

Reading up on these, I've read that bluetooth isn't possible, but you can "Stream directly from phone to Google Home". How is this done? Is it only got Google phones or can you play from an iPhone?

Nedved85

Have two of these on the way - Can't wait - Two large Alexas for sale if anyone is interested :)