One of the best features of Google’s new Nest Mini speaker is its ability to support stereo pairing for better sound quality. Now, Google is expanding stereo speaker pairing to the original Google Home and Google Home Mini.
Your Google Home speakers and displays get firmware updates fairly often, but they’re installed automatically and you usually don’t notice. However, it seems one of the recent Google Home firmware updates has been bricking some devices and they can’t be fixed.
There are more apps for Google Assistant than you’ll ever use, but apparently it’s also not that difficult to slip malicious apps through the cracks. Apparently, a security research lab managed to develop apps for Google Assistant and Alexa designed for phishing for user’s private information.
Ahead of new Nest devices next week, an updated version of the Home companion client is widely rolling out today. Google Home 2.14.50 confirms ‘Nest Mini’ and interestingly references Stadia.
Google has a whole ecosystem of home Assistant devices from Smart Displays and speakers to Chromecast-connected TVs. With a new “Stream transfer” feature today, all three categories will work better to move playing media from room to room.
Since the launch of the Nest Hub (Google Home Hub at the time), it’s been possible to Duo call your smart display from a phone or call your loved ones from your Nest Hub. Meanwhile, the classic Google Home speakers were left without this handy feature, but not for long. As of now, you can finally place audio calls to your Google Home smart speakers via Google Duo.
We just got some renders for a second gen ‘Google Home 2’ in our tipbox, and they’re almost definitely not the real deal. But they are really well done, and just for fun, we couldn’t not share them. In the gallery below, you’ll see an artist’s concept of a second generation followup to 2016’s Google Home, packing a display up top, Soli radar, and a contactless charging dock…
There are a number of ways to Cast content from your phone to smart devices. The most convenient is when developers integrate the Cast SDK so that controls are built right into the audio or video app. Mirroring your device is another solution, and Google Home 2.14.1 adds shortcuts to make that more apparent.
As of today, Google Home and Nest speakers now have the ability to make external mobile calls using voice activation, starting first with Australia.
A new “Call Home” button is now rolling out to the Google Home app on Android that makes it easier for you to place a video call from your mobile directly to any of your Google Nest Hub devices and Smart Displays.
Google Home 2.13.50 is rolling out this evening with support for and many details about the upcoming Nest Hub Max. This release also returns strings detailing in-app Nest device setup, while providing some collaboration about a new “Nest Mini” later this year.
Google plans to launch a followup to 2017’s Google Home Mini with a second-generation ‘Nest Mini,’ a reliable source tells 9to5Google. It’s a departure from the previous model in name, but also a substantial upgrade in features. This year’s Nest Mini will pack a wall mount, better sound, and more.
Yesterday Amazon and Google finally put an end to their bitter, consumer-hostile feud and started to support each other’s platforms. Now, it’s been confirmed that on Google’s hardware, Amazon Prime Video is going all-out with full support for Google Home commands on Chromecast.
Last week, reminders in Google Assistant were redesigned on Android, while the functionality was entirely removed for G Suite accounts. Google today announced that Assistant reminders can now be assigned to members of your family or household.
Announced at I/O 2019, the Nest Hub Max will be available on September 9th. Google Home 2.13.1.10 readies support for the newest Smart Display, and the promised Nest migration to Google Accounts. The companion app also reveals work on linking “radio services.”
While talking to your smart home is intuitive, there are instances when voice commands can be quite disruptive. One notorious example is telling Assistant to turn off lights at night and getting back a verbal confirmation. Google is now replacing that loud response with a simple “chime” reply.
With summer well underway, the Nest Hub Max should be coming sooner rather than later. The latest Google Home 2.12.50 companion app preps “Reactive UI” settings for the new Smart Display, while there is a design tweak to control dials throughout the client. This Android release, however, does not enable the custom Assistant volume we spotted on iOS.
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.
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.
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.
It emerged yesterday that Google hires people to transcribe Assistant queries from Home and other smart devices. The company today described the practice as “critical” to bringing Assistant to other languages, while promising an investigation into the leak of customer data.
A report from a Belgian network, VRT, has uncovered how Google is using human subcontractors to help transcribe and improve its Assistant speech-recognition systems around the globe and how this could be a privacy concern (via BoingBoing).
Given everything that you can do with your Google Home(s) and/or Google Nest Hub(s), it’s easy to forget some of the simple tasks it can handle. One that I make use of a few times a week is the ability to make calls. Once you have it set up this is dead simple, so here’s how to get started making calls with Google Home and Google Nest Hub.
In addition to a slew of user-facing Assistant features at I/O 2019, another way Google is improving the experience of using Google Home and Nest Displays is through the Local Home SDK. This new local technology will deliver faster commands to your smart home accessories.
