Google Home - Hoped for features?

bk

I was thinking about what features I'd like to see Google Home gain over the next few months and I thought it might be interesting to discuss them.

Obviously I expect the AI to improve in time in terms of speech recognition, but other software features that I'd like to see:

- Ability to change the trigger command from "Hey Google". Even just "Google" would be ok.

- Ability to change the response to commands completing. GH just saying OK or beeping when the command completes, instead of the whole "turning lights on" thing and specially compared to the whole "getting harmony" and then Harmony etc. coming on saying it will do it, when it already did it 10 seconds ago :rolleyes:

- Ability to copy shortcuts and other settings between multiuser accounts. It is a pain to have to set everything up for each individual user.

- Support for groups and sub-groups, in addition or within rooms, so you can group lights/switches differently.

- Ability to string commands together e.g.:
"Hey Google, turn on living room lights and set to 50%"
Note the "and" or even across devices, services:
"Hey Google, turn on TV and set lights to 20% and turn up the heat"

- Routines, like shortcuts and somewhat similar to the above feature, but allow you to predefine multiple commands. e.g.
"Hey google, movietime"
would turn on TV, set lights, set heating, etc.

you can already do this with shortcuts and stringify, but would be nice to have it native to Google Assistant.

Hardware wise I'd like to see:

- Competitors to Echo Show and Echo Spot

- Maybe some sort of tablet/screen that you could wire into wall switches to use for home control.

- A waterproof speaker with batteries and wireless charging base (like UE Blast) to allow it to go portable/into the bathroom, etc.

wexfordman2

I'm looking for a tablet sizes touchscreen to mount on the kitchen wall that the home kitchen automatically casts to.

Also, I'd like if I was the home was more award, ie if insay turn off the lights she knows I am referring to the room lights

The high horse brigade

wexfordman2 wrote: »

I'm looking for a tablet sizes touchscreen to mount on the kitchen wall that the home kitchen automatically casts to.

This is already doable, just set the default cast device in the Home app

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Also, I'd like if I was the home was more award, ie if insay turn off the lights she knows I am referring to the room lights

Just set shortcuts in the home app. You have the options to create rooms also

OldMrBrennan83

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givecredit

Official Support In Ireland would be a nice addition.

wexfordman2

The high horse brigade wrote: »

This is already doable, just set the default cast device in the Home app



Just set shortcuts in the home app. You have the options to create rooms also

Can you cast to a tablet ?

And can shortcuts be room specific ?

The high horse brigade

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Can you cast to a tablet ?

You can use Allcast to setup a tab as a Cast reciever

wexfordman2 wrote: »

And can shortcuts be room specific ?

Yes, write them that way using the rooms you created. You can also use IFTTT and Stringify to make better shortcuts

bk

Patww79 wrote: »

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Actually you can do that at the moment. We've done this with my OH.

Share your list with the other person and have the other person make your shared list their primary list.

OldMrBrennan83

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bk

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Yes, write them that way using the rooms you created. You can also use IFTTT and Stringify to make better shortcuts

It would be nice to be able to just say "Hey Google, turn off lights" and have it be smart enough to only turn off the lights that are in the same room as the GH, without needing to create different names/shortcuts (and remember them) for each room.

Though you helped me realise that shortcuts + IFTTT/Stringify would be a work around to my lights subgrouping issue I mentioned above.

BTW that is another one for the list, native Hue scene support.

adox

Being able to set the volume of different services independently. The assistant especially I find too low in comparison to any music service at the same volume.

moonboy52

A different trigger word for sure.

Hey/OK Google is so clunky compared to saying "Computer" on my Dot

Stoner

The high horse brigade wrote:

You can use Allcast to setup a tab as a Cast reciever

Are you sure?

You can say fir example
Ok Google play Batman cartoons on YouTube on kitchen tablet?

Stoner

Ok Google cast Netflix to Android TV not just Chromecast

The high horse brigade

Stoner wrote: »

Are you sure?

You can say fir example
Ok Google play Batman cartoons on YouTube on kitchen tablet?

I believe so. Not used it myself so I'm open to correction.

bk

moonboy52 wrote: »

A different trigger word for sure.

Hey/OK Google is so clunky compared to saying "Computer" on my Dot

Actually Hey Google and Computer are much the same, both being three syllables, yes ok google is bad being 4 syllables which is why I don't use it.

Of course "Echo" is even better being two syllables. That is why just "Google" would be ok, two syllables two.

BattlingCheese

bk wrote: »

- Routines, like shortcuts and somewhat similar to the above feature, but allow you to predefine multiple commands. e.g.
"Hey google, movietime"
would turn on TV, set lights, set heating, etc.

This is actually coming soon.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/05/google-assistant-routines-now-let-personalize-multiple-actions-trigger-single-command/

BattlingCheese

Patww79 wrote: »

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We use Our Groceries app for this ever since they removed the very handy Google Keep functionality which was how shopping lists were originally done. Why google why.

It has GH integration. "Hey Google, ask our groceries to add Milk to the shopping list"

bk

BattlingCheese wrote: »

We use Our Groceries app for this ever since they removed the very handy Google Keep functionality which was how shopping lists were originally done. Why google why.

It has GH integration. "Hey Google, ask our groceries to add Milk to the shopping list"

Google Home has shopping lists and they can be shared between people. You can also have the list synced to Todoist using IFTTT.

BattlingCheese

I know but back when they switched from Keep to the App you needed an internet connection to open the shopping list and shopping centres are pretty bad signal wise for internet connections. Our Groceries App does the job without messing with IFTTT and works offline.

Is the active internet connection still needed ?

bk

BattlingCheese wrote: »

Is the active internet connection still needed ?

For the Google shopping list, yes. For Todoist/IFTTT no, this is the reason to do this.

BattlingCheese

• Enable casting to different Netflix profiles
  
• Ability for Music/Podcasts to follow you through your house. Currently, do this via a workaround of casting to group and muting as I leave rooms.
  
• As already said, native Irish region support.
  
• Access to the Google Home app from a laptop or desktop
  
• Identifying the time when it's going to rain in a day (not just that it will or not) in the morning briefing.
  
• I would like the Google Home to have a command of like "Hey google secure the house". It would then listen for weird noises in the house etc.
  

bren2001

bk wrote: »

Actually Hey Google and Computer are much the same, both being three syllables, yes ok google is bad being 4 syllables which is why I don't use it.

Of course "Echo" is even better being two syllables. That is why just "Google" would be ok, two syllables two.

The obvious issue with the command being "Google" is that it is a word people use quite often. Ok Google or Hey Google is their workaround for it. It has started to do my head in.

I do hope they improve the mic, if I am playing music/podcast above 60%, the mic struggles to hear the Ok Google.

bk

bren2001 wrote: »

The obvious issue with the command being "Google" is that it is a word people use quite often. Ok Google or Hey Google is their workaround for it. It has started to do my head in.

With voice recognition it is less of an issue. It shouldn't respond to someone just saying it on TV, etc.

Or just pick another two syllable work.

bren2001 wrote: »

I do hope they improve the mic, if I am playing music/podcast above 60%, the mic struggles to hear the Ok Google.

This is an advantage I've found of using CCA's and separate speakers, allows you to have the mini/mics further away from the speakers, which seems to help.

ixoy

adox wrote: »

Being able to set the volume of different services independently. The assistant especially I find too low in comparison to any music service at the same volume.

This! I find the opposite though - the Assistant with the Google Mini is too loud at times. At night, I like to sometimes play soothing sounds: "Hey Google, play ocean sounds".
Now the ocean sounds are soft and soothing but the: "OKAY PLAYING SOUNDS O THE OCEAN" beforehand is not (and redundant too). Google constantly telling me it's going to do what I asked it do isn't particularly helpful.

Double C

I'd like it if you could link your Pocket Casts account to GH like you can with Spotify. So say you're in the car listening to a podcast and you get half way through, once you get home, just say "OK google, resume Pocket Casts" and it would pick up from where you left off. I emailed Pocket Casts and they said they are working on it, but I wouldn't hold my breath!