Google Home FAQ

Shedite27

BoardsMember wrote: »

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.

Mine is literally playing 2fm as i type

lafors

BoardsMember wrote: »

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.

Mine did the exact same since the weekend. I bet it's on tune-ins side. Driving me mad as rte radio one works!

él statutorio

BoardsMember wrote: »

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.

Reboot the device. Sometimes works for me. Mine does the same thing (with todayfm) it'll work fine if I cast form the phone to GH but GH sometimes just can't find the station itself.

bk

It looks like the Google Assistant/Home will be coming to lots more devices soon:

http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/27/15442994/google-assistant-sdk-smart-speaker-actions-gadgets-raspberry-pi

McSween

Can i ask this to play any song I choose and it will start playing

bk

McSween wrote: »

Can i ask this to play any song I choose and it will start playing

Google Home? Yes, if the song is available on the music streaming service you are subscribed too, Spotify Premium or Google Music, e.g.:

"Hey Google, Play Shape of You"

seklly

bk wrote: »

Google Home? Yes, if the song is available on the music streaming service you are subscribed too, Spotify Premium or Google Music, e.g.:

"Hey Google, Play Shape of You"

Also if you don't know the name of the song you can say something like:

"Hey Google, play the song that goes Me and my friends at the table doing shots"

jogdish

"ok google opening hours tesco"
..
" the tesco's opening hours are" She just stops

Anyone every got this to work?

OldBean

Just tried mine and was told the nearest Tesco, that it's currently open and it's open til 11 but may be closing early due to a bank holiday.

Still not exactly the opening hours though, but a pretty good go at it. I wonder if it yours can't locate the nearest Tesco for some reason?

I used "Hey Google, what are Tesco's opening hours". Same answer with "Ok Google, opening hours Tesco".

jogdish

OldBean wrote: »

Just tried mine and was told the nearest Tesco, that it's currently open and it's open til 11 but may be closing early due to a bank holiday.

Still not exactly the opening hours though, but a pretty good go at it. I wonder if it yours can't locate the nearest Tesco for some reason?

I used "Hey Google, what are Tesco's opening hours". Same answer with "Ok Google, opening hours Tesco".

Wow! Mine knows my street address ( i've asked it where I am, and directions to the local tesco ).
Like its super weird, cause if I ask the google assistant thing on my phone I get what you got. But no luck with the GH.
Did you do anything special with your GH app? I find the app awful to navigate and fairly pointless, unless i'm missing something?

OldBean

Nope - Nothing at all, it's set up as US English, and not much else changed. If you search for the Tesco on your desktop, do the opening hours come up straight away? It could be a case of Tesco not entering the details properly?

The app isn't great. I never know what I'm looking for or where.

Ludo

Mine should be arriving from the UK in a couple of days. Is there anything I need to do region/location wise to get it going here in Ireland?

I see this on the first page:

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.

Do I still need to do that?

wexfordman2

Ludo wrote: »

Mine should be arriving from the UK in a couple of days. Is there anything I need to do region/location wise to get it going here in Ireland?

I see this on the first page:


Do I still need to do that?

Did you order yours from Curry's in the UK ? I just got an email saying my or has been cancelled!!

jogdish

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Did you order yours from Curry's in the UK ? I just got an email saying my or has been cancelled!!

Got my from John Lewis + parcel motel.

Just load up the app it will guide you there is nothing irish specific needed, its region agnostic from a end users perspective to set up. Having said that some services seem to work in US registered ones and not YET in uk ones.

Ludo

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Did you order yours from Curry's in the UK ? I just got an email saying my or has been cancelled!!

Argos + Parcel Motel. Hasn't been cancelled yet...but also hasn't shipped yet!

Bradz213

Mine got cancelled from Currys. Money hasnt gone back on to Revolut yet!

eamonnq

Got mine from Maplins via Parcel Motel, also got a 15gbp voucher which I used against a Chromecast.

They have a special offer at the moment Chromecast and Google Home for 129.00

wexfordman2

Bradz213 wrote: »

Mine got cancelled from Currys. Money hasnt gone back on to Revolut yet!

Same here, sent an email asking why it was cancelled, and got no response.
Rang cust care today and they would not/could not tell me why it was cancelled.

Wont be dealing with them again, saying that had a bad experience with them a few years back and swore I wouldnt buy anything off them back then, now I know why.

Ludo

Ludo wrote: »

Argos + Parcel Motel. Hasn't been cancelled yet...but also hasn't shipped yet!

Mine arrived from Argos this morning. Have it all setup now and linked to my harmony hub so voice controlled TV working. Turns on and off tv and changes to requested channel no bother. Kids and myself very impressed so far.

eamonnq

Ludo wrote: »

Mine arrived from Argos this morning. Have it all setup now and linked to my harmony hub so voice controlled TV working. Turns on and off tv and changes to requested channel no bother. Kids and myself very impressed so far.

Did you have to set it to US to get the Harmony Hub working with it ?

Ludo

After setup I had to switch the language to English (US) to get it to link to my harmony account. One annoying side affect of that is that the weather now comes out in Fahrenheit even though I have the setting set to Celsius. I must change it back to UK english today and see does it still work now that they are linked. The terminology is a bit long winded though. "OK Google , tell harmony to turn on sky sports news." then google replies "OK, here's harmony" or something like that and then harmony replies "OK..switching to sky sports news". A simple OK would do in fairness and just switch the bloody channel.

Another issue is that after the initial configuration, I cannot get to modify the settings in any way as the Services menu does not appear in the google home app for me (presumably as it is a US only supported thing for now).

Nice trick and kinda handy I guess if you are lying out on the couch and the remote is on other side of room or something but not really that useful most of the time. Just pressing a remote button is a lot faster.

OldBean

Having to ask Harmony to do it is a pain in the arse, I don't understand why they're not able to tie voice commands in more natively.

"Hey google, turn up the TV" vs "Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn up the volumn on the TV"

bk

OldBean wrote: »

"Hey google, turn up the TV" vs "Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn up the volumn on the TV"

I suspect it will come in time.

Basically Logitech are using the generic services API that anyone can use and I think requires very limited involvement from Google for that.

For more native integration like you describe, it requires a close partnership between Google and Logitech (lawyers, shudder) and more work from the Google programmers to make it work.

I'm sure it will come in time, but it just takes more time.

BTW, you can use IFTTT to do the following:
"Hey Google, Turn on/off TV"
"Hey Google, Turn on/off DVD", etc.

This doesn't give you control over changing volumes, channels, etc. But I find these are the commands I use most of the time anyway. I turn on the TV this way when I walk into the room, so that the TV is turned on and set to the right input etc. by the time I have sat down with the remote in my hand.

I also use this to turn off the TV, after we finish watching a movie or something, without needing to search the sofa in the dark from the remote.

Having said that, even when native support comes, I still think it will be easier to use the remote. This is why I always recommend to people buying Harmony Hub to also get a remote. Voice control and app control are simply no where as convenient as a well designed remote IMO.

Ludo

bk wrote: »

BTW, you can use IFTTT to do the following:
"Hey Google, Turn on/off TV"
"Hey Google, Turn on/off DVD", etc.

This doesn't give you control over changing volumes, channels, etc. But I find these are the commands I use most of the time anyway. I turn on the TV this way when I walk into the room, so that the TV is turned on and set to the right input etc. by the time I have sat down with the remote in my hand.

I also use this to turn off the TV,

Agreed...I have this set up also and have used it a few times already and it is useful alright. Much handier than the harmony integration.

Moreilly

Looking at getting a google home, just one question - with the offer of the google home with the free chromecast do you still get 3 months free google play music subscription ?

Mech1

Could someone please tell me how to play "smoothfm 95.3 sydney" on tunein. it works in the tunein app on my android phone but GH says not found.
Thanks.

I've had an Echo since launch but since I use practically everything else online from Google I'm curious about the Home. Anybody have both and have done a comparison? Most importantly (for me!) can the Home play "ABC Lounge on TuneIn" via voice command? Always bugged me about the Echo.

lafors

Noticed this morning I don't have to say "on tunein" anymore to play a radio station
Plus for some magic reason saying "RTE 2fm" is working again!

MentalMario

Hey Google, what time does "X" close doesn't work anymore. Repeats the name of the business and says closes at but stops and doesn't tell you when

jogdish

lafors wrote: »

Noticed this morning I don't have to say "on tunein" anymore to play a radio station
Plus for some magic reason saying "RTE 2fm" is working again!

saying "ok Google play 2fm" works for me If I say RTE, 50% success works