Google Home Invite

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
21

What I find interesting is they are offering six months of YouTube red. Is that how tweeted it will play ,us if from? With echo you need prime music.

22

When i saw the invite from google, i was wondering if i can use my own language with it (dutch, since my wife doesn’t want to speak english). As far as i can tell, it isn’t possible, correct me if i’m wrong.

Can anybody tell me if it is already possible to program alexa to work with own commmands (which are dutch)?

23

I love my Echo, but there are two areas where I find it deficient when using it as a HA addon:

  1. TTS: I want to be able to send text phrases directly to Echo and have it speak them. I hate having to do this via a tablet hidden in a cupboard that’s BT connected to Echo. It’s unreliable and a hassle.

  2. Ability to setup custom voice commands to do specific things. I want to be able to “Alexa, Open the Garage Door.” and then setup in the background that when Alexa hears this specific command it does a very specific, customization action
 like turning on a virtual switch.

If Google Home can do either of these things, it’ll make it very tempting to buy. If it can do BOTH of these things out of the box
 well, then I’m almost certainly going to buy it.

2 Likes
24

Amazon just announced scenes for the echo.

I don’t know if this is what you are looking for.

25

Mine has been working great either thru echo-st-harmony or echo-ifttt-harmony. As for the price I’m not wealthy but if Google home was a lot better it would be worth the difference between $50 and $129.

26

Not really
 because you’re still having to memorize a command that doesn’t make good “English” sense


The classic example is a garage door. I say to Alexa: “Turn on the garage door” and it will turn on the relay connected to the garage door. That’s fine, but it doesn’t make sense. You don’t turn on a door. You open or close a door.

Now, to her credit, Alexa will understand if I say “Open the garage door” or “Close the garage door” and she will turn on the relay connected to the garage door. But
 Alexa will do this regardless of the current state of the garage door. If I say: “Open the door” and it’s already open, Alexa will trigger the relay and close the door. Likewise if I tell her to close it and it’s already closed, it will open it.

The work around here is a simple smart app and some virtual switches. Instead of triggering the relay that is connected to the garage door, instead I trigger a virtual device called “Open Garage Door.” This triggers a smart app to check if the door is open or closed. If closed, it triggers the relay connnected to the garage door. If it’s already open, it does nothing.

But now I’m back to silly English: “Alexa, turn on Open Garage Door.” or “Alexa, turn on Close Garage Door.” It works, but it’s clumsy.

The next work around is to include IFTTT in the process
 now you say “Alexa, Trigger the garage door open.” Still not perfect, but closer to natural English
 but now we’ve made the process that much more complex: Alexa to IFTTT to SmartThings
 more room for error, more room for systems to not speak correctly to each other. More room for failure and more room for my wife to complain that Alexa isn’t working.

27

Had a physical yesterday and the doc says my hearing is better in my left ear compared to my right. I told him thays because my wife is usually sitting on my right.

1 Like
28

A work around for this, I’ve created virtual switches that will open/lock doors depending on the status of the switch. Add the switches to Alexa and “Forget” the true relay switch that is found during discovery.

Yes, the command to turn on/off is goofy, but so is delaying French. :joy:

29

Another thing to keep in mind with Google Home (GH) vs Alexa;

If you have two or more GH’s you can link them together. Not the case with Alexa. Unless Amazon can fix this issue, GH will command this marked.

BUT

What does Samsung have up their sleeve since they bought Viv Lab’s?

v3 hub with satellite speakers?

Sonos just came out stating they are working with Amazon to voice activate commands.

30

I wouldn’t doubt that Amazon will link them at some point. They added the nearest device feature so only the Alexa close by will respond.

Another thing to consider, GH won’t play Amazon Prime Music. That’s a given. So if (like me) your music player of choice is Prime Music then Alexa is the only option. To complicate that issue, Amazon just annouced a new unlimited music player for Echo/Dot/Tap devices. It will be an additional $8 a month ($96 more a yr) for Prime members or $10 a month for non prime members. that might not be a good move for Amazon.

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31

What does the Unlimited Music option give you that Prime doesn’t? We use Prime and Pandora both at home, curious about this Unlimited option. My sole frustration with both services is the lack of multiple-device streaming options on a single account, my wife and I have to coordinate who is listening to which service. I’d hope that Unlimited would allow X number of simultaneous streaming devices.

The only feature that I wish Echo had was the ability to work with chromecast devices, but there’s obviously a competitive reason why that won’t happen. I’m really curious to see what comes of the threat by Google to remove the Cast feature from apps that are natively supported by other voice assistants. I use Pandora quite a bit with my three chromecast devices, but also with Echo too, I’d hate to lose either one of those features.

32

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/amazon’s-music-service-for-echo-users-will-launch-in-the-next-few-weeks/ar-BBx7krC?li=AA4Zoy&ocid=spartanntp

Most of my music is from Prime music. If they separate music from prime to charge more for echo/dot/tap players, then prime membership loses some of the luster.

33

They talk about Unlimited being available only to Echo devices, but they don’t say whether the launch of Unlimited will remove Echo’s ability to play Prime music. Is that what your concern is as well?

34

It’s Amazon fleecing it’s customers. They want us to pay for 2 music services. Amazon music is ok but not good enough for another $96 a year on top of prime membership.

1 Like
35

Google announced music service at a reduced rate for GH owners something like $5 a month for all music like Apple has.

36

Their code sows the price will be $10 for non prime members and $8 for members.

37

Ok thanks I was a few dollars off but that includes allot of songs old new and all. Prime is hit or miss but I still have it and won’t get rid of it. Music is a plus. Movies and two shipping is the main reason I have it.

38

I’m not saying prime is bad, just adding another service to make members pay for is. Check out prices of stuff on prime vs off. Most of the time off prime is cheaper and still has free shipping. Just have to look for it on the Amazon site, they try to bury competitive prices down a few pages.

39

But from what I heard it won’t take away from prime it will add all the new music not on prime. Did I read wrong.

40

There are not many details yet just that it is an exclusive to echo/dot/tap.

1 Like