A fairly common complaint with Smart Displays and Home speakers is how the Google Assistant voice is tied to the standard media volume. This can result in search results and responses being too loud or too quiet. Google is now readying a solution with “Custom TTS Volume” in the Home app.

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Smart speakers are used in many households for controlling smart lighting products. Currently, one of the most popular smart lighting options, Philips Hue, can’t be connected to Google Assistant due to a bug, but thankfully, both companies are at least aware of the problem that takes away the ability for Google Home to control the smart lights.

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Launched last year, the Google Assistant Updates feed is a spiritual successor to Google Now dedicated to showing calendar events, where you last parked, and more. This “visual snapshot” of your day has just gained a “Resume your podcast” Assistant card.

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Samsung makes some of the best smartwatches for Android users, but they lack a lot of the Google apps that make alternatives more appealing. What’s especially a shame is the lack of Google Assistant, with Samsung’s less capable Bixby in its place. Now, though, there’s a way to install Google Assistant on a Samsung Galaxy Watch and other Samsung models. Here’s how.

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On July 16th, 1969, NASA successfully launched a mission to bring astronauts to the moon, and 50 years later, we’ve just passed the anniversary of that historic event. To celebrate, the US Navy has developed a new Google Assistant game called “Journey to the Moon” which plays real audio recordings and takes you through the process of the lunar launch.

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Over the past several Google app releases, we’ve been tracking a Google Assistant Ambient Mode. With the latest beta on Friday, we now have our first early look at the always-on display feature.

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