Google Home FAQ

lawred2

Bluefoam wrote: »

Is this a real question?

If you want to know where to purchase a Google Home device, I suggest you at least read back... at least the opening post...

Alright captain aggressive... Fancy yourself as a mod do you?

The op says not available here so short of flying to the US, I was asking how people were acquiring them.

But whatever pal.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

The high horse brigade

You'll be able to order it on Currys.co.uk if you use Parcel Motel and a Revolut card as they won't take Irish Visa

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tech/smart-home/smart-home-voice-control/google-home-hands-free-smart-speaker-white-10161441-pdt.html

lawred2

Patww79 wrote: »

It wasn't available outside the US on launch when the thread was started, but last week it got a UK launch. I got mine from the US so I haven't looked at what the best ways are that they can be got here from the UK, but they're in Currys and Maplin there. Not sure if Google themselves will ship to something like a Parcel Motel from the UK Play Store. Updating the opening post with UK details would be handy though to save people having to read 23 pages of this thread.

Thanks. That's good to know. Usually a UK launch means an Ireland launch not far behind.

lawred2

The high horse brigade wrote: »

You'll be able to order it on Currys.co.uk if you use Parcel Motel and a Revolut card as they won't take Irish Visa

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tech/smart-home/smart-home-voice-control/google-home-hands-free-smart-speaker-white-10161441-pdt.html

I have both of those

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

bk

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Apple are years behind, anyway, they don't innovate, they just copy everyone else's tech and bastardise it so it's completely incompatible with everything available and makes you buy their hardware to use it. There is nothing to be gained by them entering this market.

Actually that isn't the case, their HomeKit API's are actually WAY ahead of everyone else. Having looked into it myself, it is actually an extremely well written specification, in particular in relation to security and privacy.

The downside of this though is that it has very high requirements for encryption, etc. which makes it harder and slower for IoT devices to be integrated with it.

It is a trade off of speed of delivery versus security and privacy.

Also for the devices that I have that support Siri, GHome and Alexa (Hue and Netatmo), I found that Siri is actually the best at controlling them.

It is just a pain to have to use the phone to control them, Apple really needs a GHome/Alexa competitor.

OU812

bk wrote: »

Apple really needs a GHome/Alexa competitor.

There's a rumour that the ATV 4 has a built-in mic that's not currently enabled. I know the remote has one on it also. I can't see this being a decent home hub though as most people would have it hidden away. Although if they do go that way, at least I already have the hardware...

jogdish

Enjoying my home.

Is there any way to play random youtube audio via the home, without signing up to a paid service.

i.e okay google play,"song title" and it plays from youtube, I am not talking about going to chrome cast or anything.

MentalMario

jogdish wrote: »

Enjoying my home.

Is there any way to play random youtube audio via the home, without signing up to a paid service.

i.e okay google play,"song title" and it plays from youtube, I am not talking about going to chrome cast or anything.

Try this: https://seo-michael.co.uk/cast-any-video-playlist-fromyoutube-app-to-google-home/

Nolimits

Apologies if this has been noted, or is merely a glitch but the twin pack of Google Home is showing as in stock for me in my local store, but only on mobile. I only post this as it seems that people are still asking about where to get it here.

I took a screenshot, but in the preview here I noticed it's a bit pointless as it doesn't show the product lol

I even got a reservation number

eamonnq

bk wrote: »

You can now control Harmony Hub with Google Home, similar to how it works Alexa.

In other to set it up, you need to find Harmony under Services in the Google Home app.

Once setup you can give it commands like:
"Hey Google, Ask Harmony to turn on the TV"
"Hey Google, Ask Harmony to increase the volume"
"Hey Google, Ask Harmony to change to channel 70"

Now that GHome does this, I'm not sure what I'll use my Echo Dot for any more. They both can now do the exact same things!

Can't seem to find any option to add HARMONY to Google Home, but I could be missing something obvious.

Harmony says that it will only work with US GH at the moment though ?

bk

eamonnq wrote: »

Can't seem to find any option to add HARMONY to Google Home, but I could be missing something obvious.

Harmony says that it will only work with US GH at the moment though ?

Ah, that might be it, I set up mine as a US GH, I got it from there.

eamonnq

bk wrote: »

Ah, that might be it, I set up mine as a US GH, I got it from there.

Thanks, that might explain it alright. Wonder if I can set mine to US or if I can does it have any other 'detrimental' effects.

bk

eamonnq wrote: »

Thanks, that might explain it alright. Wonder if I can set mine to US or if I can does it have any other 'detrimental' effects.

I think it is pretty straight forward, just follow the steps in the FAQ, you need to set your phone to the US locale, etc.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

wexfordman2

Patww79 wrote: »

Multi user now available.

US only.

:rolleyes:

I cant figire out how to set my androod to us , anyone advise ?

eamonnq

wexfordman2 wrote: »

I cant figire out how to set my androod to us , anyone advise ?

Had a quick look myself and could not find it either, I think you may have to set it in your Google account (if you search something in Google , then scroll down to the bottom of the list and your location is listed there and can be changed ). Not sure if it works as have not tried it yet myself, but I would think that you would have to change it everywhere that you are signed in (PC, Phone and anywhere else you can think of).

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

bk

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Coming to the UK in a couple of weeks :rolleyes:

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

bk

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

As a software engineer I can assure you that doing careful, rolling rollout's is very much best practise in the IT industry now!

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, etc. all do it now for rolling out new features.

Roll it out to a small subset of your users first to get feedback on how it is working in the real world. Then slowly roll it out around the world to new areas (or groups of users).

It allows you to get feedback first if there any issues and roll back the change if needed without effecting the majority of users. Also avoids issues with lots of users trying to download an update at the same time and hammering your servers which caused issues for the likes of Google and Apple in the past.

You just have to be a little patient, a few weeks won't kill you!

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

bk

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

What?! The product isn't even 6 months old yet. It has only been out in the UK one week and isn't officially available in Ireland yet!

Voice recognition is a very complicated and sophisticated feature. Alexa has been out 2 and a half years now and still doesn't have it.

As I told you a few months ago, all these features are coming. And I've been proven right. In the past 6 months, GHome has gained loads of new features:

- New voice interaction service, with lots of services supported
- Support for lots of new home automation devices, Wemo, TP-Link, Wink, LIFX, etc.
- Support for Logitech Harmony Hub
- Launched in the UK
- Multi-user support with voice recognition
- Google Assistant launched across Android Phones

Good solid progress in just 6 months. Much faster then Alexa rolls out new features.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

jogdish

Is there any way for the GH to play music from internet without signing up for a paid for service?

BailMeOut

jogdish wrote: »

Is there any way for the GH to play music from internet without signing up for a paid for service?

I use mine to play Radio Paradise which is free commercial free steaming music.

'ok google, play radio paradise'

jogdish

Issue with opening times:
" Ok Google is Tesco open"
Answer " the opening times for Tesco are" then nothing she just stops - weird since google on web has zero issues bringing the opening times up.

bk

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Given that most of us in this forum live in Ireland, I'm not sure what your point is!

You can buy a GHome in UK or the US and they both work fine in Ireland. You can set up a UK one as a US one if you prefer to get the US features sooner.

BoardsMember

Mine has stopped being able to play rte 2fm. Correct instruction, repeats the instruction to me but says cannot find it on tune in. Plays fine via casting from tune in app.