Google Home FAQ

ibFoxer

bk wrote: »

It works really well in Ireland IMO.

I agree, I think it is much better than Alexa, who frankly is a bit of a pain :pac:

OldBean

Set mine up last Monday after having it running in the US last week.

No hassle at all. You might have to change the language in your phone.

One interesting thing - I found it working much faster when I had it in the US. I did a full factory restart before using it here to save any issues. It's sped up since, but it was remarkably faster in the US initially. I guess everything is being dealt with on their US servers at the moment.

kaisersose77

A lot of times when I ask it to play a particular song it will say sorry but the song is not available in my area (using play music sub). However the song will play fine through play music app on my phone or even when I ask the Google home to play a band and the song eventually comes up skipping through the playlist. It's like it's looking to play the us liscenced version of song instead of the Irish version. Anyone know of any fix?

bk

kaisersose77 wrote: »

A lot of times when I ask it to play a particular song it will say sorry but the song is not available in my area (using play music sub). However the song will play fine through play music app on my phone or even when I ask the Google home to play a band and the song eventually comes up skipping through the playlist. It's like it's looking to play the us liscenced version of song instead of the Irish version. Anyone know of any fix?

Sorry, I know it might sound like a cheeky answer, but Spotify?

It just seems to be a much better service then play music IME.

kaisersose77

bk wrote: »

Sorry, I know it might sound like a cheeky answer, but Spotify?

It just seems to be a much better service then play music IME.

I would but using my leftover three phone credit to pay for play music so kinda free.

MentalMario

bk wrote: »

Sorry, I know it might sound like a cheeky answer, but Spotify?

It just seems to be a much better service then play music IME.

I've a similar issue. I think I'll go to Spotify once my current Play Music sub is up.

BailMeOut

want to play a playlist but want it shuffled. Anyone know a way to do in one command?

Currently you need to

"ok google play playlist 'list name'"
wait for play to start
"ok google shuffle"
wait for response
"ok google next"

being able to just say "ok google play playlist 'list name' shuffle" would be nice.

él statutorio

I'm having a weird issue with GH and Google play music, I'll ask GH to play a song (it defaults to GPM), it's usually sit silently for 30 secs or so, then play the song, usually stopping mid track for a few seconds for some more silence then continues playing. If it's a playlist, this will usually keep happening for each song on the playlist.

I was convinced I had a wi-fi problem but my wife pointed out she never has the issue when she asks GH to play a song or a playlist from Youtube. She was right, no random silences from youtube....

Oh and when it goes silent, I can say "hey Google, continue" and it'll fire away.

I'm stumped on this....

*edit*
Looks like it's common enough to have a long thread
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/googlehome/rhdl0Lnd_lU

OldMrBrennan83

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BoardsMember

My GHome is not playing ball at all. Several reboots later its like I'm speaking a foreign language, wont do anything it used to. First world problems, I know, but voice recognition is basically non existant. Might pack it away for a while.

BailMeOut

BoardsMember wrote: »

My GHome is not playing ball at all. Several reboots later its like I'm speaking a foreign language, wont do anything it used to. First world problems, I know, but voice recognition is basically non existant. Might pack it away for a while.

Have you factory reset it? Hold mic button for over 15 seconds .

ferrigan101

BoardsMember wrote: »

My GHome is not playing ball at all. Several reboots later its like I'm speaking a foreign language, wont do anything it used to. First world problems, I know, but voice recognition is basically non existant. Might pack it away for a while.

Have you had a look in the home app to see what it thinks your saying?

BoardsMember

Yeah, even uninstalled Home on my android. Will try it all again tomorrow.

BoardsMember

Q..."Ok google play Newstalk on tunein"

A..."Ok playing daft punk on spotify"

Shedite27

BoardsMember wrote: »

Q..."Ok google play Newstalk on tunein"

A..."Ok playing daft punk on spotify"

I find the last word of the sentence is very important to tell Home what you want. If it's "Podcast" it will always play me a podcast (even if it's the wrong one), "playlist" and it will always hit spotify and for radio it has to be "FM".

"Ok google play Newstalk on tunein" wouldn't work for me, "Ok google play newstalk FM" will be fine

BoardsMember

Its been working for weeks, now it just isn't. Often it doesn't even tell me it cant help me with that or it cant do that or whatever. It listens, spins, them goes bacl to sleep.

ferrigan101

BoardsMember wrote: »

Its been working for weeks, now it just isn't. Often it doesn't even tell me it cant help me with that or it cant do that or whatever. It listens, spins, them goes bacl to sleep.

I was just looking through the gHome subreddit and seen this https://www.reddit.com/r/googlehome/comments/5r38ds/gh_getting_worse_at_understanding_me/

Could it be static?

BoardsMember

Thanks, I will try that.

Gave up after..."Play Newstalk fm"

"Cafe is spelt c a f e" agh!!

OldMrBrennan83

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BoardsMember

I shook it about a bit and blew on the mic and it seems to be understanding English again. For now!

ferrigan101

BoardsMember wrote: »

I shook it about a bit and blew on the mic and it seems to be understanding English again. For now!

Good stuff. Did you have a listen to what it has recorded you saying? This completely freaked herself out this morning when I was playing back everything she'd said to the home yesterday :pac:

BoardsMember

I have 2 gmail accounts/email addresses, one a personal one, the other a work one.

I went into https://myactivity.google.com on both accounts to try to diagnose the issue I'm having.

Firstly, some of my voice control attempts are on the activity history of my personal, others on the work one. All were attempts via google home. I dont have voice activation turned on on my phone now, though I did previously. Any ideas why it seems to arbitrarily swap between the two accounts.

On the work account, where I have the option to PLAY (i.e. replay the command) it is linked to Google App, on the personal it is linked to Assistant. Both of them have the transcript of what it heard. Any idea why one seems to save (or let me listen back to) voice attempts?

The volume is really low recently when listening back, compared to previously, so that would account for the issues - definitely a mic issue.

Yamanoto

Using GH to control hue lights seems to be triggering an issue for me & I'm wondering if anyone's experienced similar.

If I instruct GH to turn lights off in a certain room it'll do it. If I then ask it to do anything such as turn lights back on, tell me the time or set an alarm etc, it's prompting a "Sorry, something went wrong. Try again in a few seconds".

Tried a reboot & factory reset of GH, unlinked my hue account from GH, moved GH location & the issue still persists.

OldBean

I posted about the similar-ish issue a few weeks ago.

In the end, I needed to unplug the Hue bridge, turn off all lights at the switch and left the house for a few hours. When I came back, turned everything on and it worked as normal. I'm pretty sure the issue is on the Hue side, as my Harmony remote wasn't able to control the lights properly either.

However, I've had no troubles with alarms, etc.

OldMrBrennan83

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OldBean

Was there? I'm finding it hard enough to see what updates are coming.

Speaking of which, while I'm happy with the GHome overall, I'm a little disappointed with the lack of pace - still no Harmony compatibility, one account only, lack of reminders if that hasn't been updated.

OldMrBrennan83

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the heathen

Nope, you can't add reminders yet. I've noticed that you can now ask what album a song is from* which didn't previously work.

*On Google Play Music - not sure about Spotify

bk

the heathen wrote: »

Nope, you can't add reminders yet. I've noticed that you can now ask what album a song is from* which didn't previously work.

*On Google Play Music - not sure about Spotify

I think reminders and calendar events will come when multi account support comes. Maybe even with voice recognition.

I don't think it is an issue that they can't simply add calendars and reminders, rather the issue is that GHome is a shared device, thus you run into the issue of whose calendar/to do list do you add it too.

Griffinx

Has something changed with playing music? She no longer can see my playlists. If I ask her to play music she just picks random music from my collection and plays it.

jogdish

Hi,
So I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 phone, and honestly saying "OK Google" works like 1/10 times and is next to useless since it hardly every picks up the wake word.

Is GH better? or will I endlessly be repeating hello google?

BoardsMember

I have an S6 too, dont use voice much on it. The GH is very good for waking, sometimes weaker on commands, but generally very happy with it.

the heathen

I tend to use 'Hey Google' rather than 'OK Google' as the former only wakes up my Google Home where the latter wakes up the phone too.

bk

jogdish wrote: »

Hi,
So I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 phone, and honestly saying "OK Google" works like 1/10 times and is next to useless since it hardly every picks up the wake word.

Is GH better? or will I endlessly be repeating hello google?

The OK Google system on Galaxy S6 is completely different to Google Assistant that you find on Google Home and that isn't taking into account the different mics.

The Google Pixel is the only android phone that has a version (though also slightly different) of the same Google Assistant in GH.

So you can't really tell much from it.

Griffinx

Googke Home now has a UK voice now...change from app

wexfordman2

Griffinx wrote: »

Googke Home now has a UK voice now...change from app

Where, I can't see the optional I get is US?

Griffinx

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Where, I can't see the optional I get is US?

Google Home app->More Settings->Language->English (UK)

wexfordman2

Griffinx wrote: »

Google Home app->More Settings->Language->English (UK)

That's odd, I only have English us option

OldMrBrennan83

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Griffinx

Patww79 wrote: »

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Im using the iphone app..heres some screenshots. Maybe they are just rolling it out.

OldMrBrennan83

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OldBean

iPhone update to Google Home released earlier. States improvements and bug fixes too.

bk

wexfordman2 wrote: »

That's odd, I only have English us option

I've got it, Google Home app on iPhone 1.21.1708 - released 2nd of March.

Patww79 wrote: »

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Obviously Google heard that you didn't like her and is punishing you now

- Do you have your phones region set to the US? As in your phones general settings, not the setting in the GHome app.

- Maybe you had your GHome plugged out, maybe it doesn't have the latest firmware?

- System firmware version: 78295
- Cast firmware version: 1.22.78295
- Country code: US

OldMrBrennan83

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bk

Patww79 wrote: »

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What sort of Android TV do you have? Is it a Nvidia Shield TV or a TV with Android TV built in? Also have you tried youtube?

Patww79 wrote: »

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Interestingly Google actually makes significantly more money (ad money) off iOS then it does off Android!

Also if you have ever been to a Google office, you will see Mac's everywhere and even iPhones. Google folk really like Apple gear.

OldMrBrennan83

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OldMrBrennan83

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aaronm13

I updated the app today on Android and still only have US as a voice selection, must only be IOS for now.

bk

Sorry, I don't have a Netflix sub any more, so can't really help with that.

Patww79 wrote: »

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Mac is a no brainer for most developers as it is a Unix based operating system, with a nice GUI on top. You have a nice command line, bash, etc. and can easily install most of the nice open source software.

Linux isn't half as nice an environment IMO.

Also you can run windows on a mac if you need to do windows development, but the reverse isn't true. Plus the hardware is very well built and reliable.

The advantage of iPhone is just simplicity and reliability. IMO Android is such a pain in the ass mess by comparison. Every time I try using it I think it is improving nicely and then something completely idiotic hits me that reminds me what a disorganised mess it is. But that is just my opinion, I'm sure others would disagree.

OldMrBrennan83

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