Google Home

It’s premium.

Thanks for the detail there. I’ve not looked into harmony hub. How does it control sonos ? Is it like a deeper and more reliable integration with sonos than SmartThings ?

Do you use Alexa to control Spotify over sonos now?

All Harmony can do is start/stop volume up/down and next/previous. I have the ultimate version as each sonos speaker is considered a separate device and I have 7 sonos devices in the house. Now I only keep 3 of them in a group at all times and that is what I use for listening to music. The playbar/sub is only for the TV, but if needed I can always group it, but not by voice.

I use GH way more than Alexa now, but might move Alexa to either master or bonus room and start controlling things. Or it might just sit in the closet for a while :stuck_out_tongue:

I have no issues with sonos within smarthings as it can see all the speakers, but really Harmony is doing all the activities, smartthings can just see when speakers are on/off. I had all this setup before Alexa came out with their new Harmony skill, so their new skill may add more functions, but so far I have been happy with my setup.

I have a routine that runs each morning with me saying “Hey Google, Good Morning” This sets my house alarm to home/disarm and starts my sonos music. I just hate that I have to actually open the master bedroom door to tell GH what to do. Soon will have something in the master bedroom whether is be GH or Alexa. I know 3rd world problems…

Ken~

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Yonomi is a free app which works with both Alexa and Sonos. Might be worth looking at. I don’t have Sonos, but I use it with echo and harmony and it works well. :sunglasses:

https://www.yonomi.co

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I don’t have a Sonos. I mostly listen to music straight from the Dots. I play Amazon music and iHeartradio. I have free Spotify on my phone and computer, but it stops playing after every song so I don’t mess with it much.

Thanks all. Sounds like google home is far better loved here for st integration. Hopefully sonos capability comes ootb soon.

I like the idea of having voice control for my sonos so am torn which way to go but of course want voice control of my st things and routines.

I have an Xbox one so have full voice control on that (Plex is great )

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Give me a ‘Dot’-like form factor and AutoVoice, and I’ll definitely get at least one.

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Logitech has added a section to their google home FAQ on “incompatible names.”

https://support.myharmony.com/en-my/harmony-experience-with-google-home#incompatible

Right now the Google Home/harmony integration is through IFTTT, but unlike the echo/harmony integration through IFTTT in that echo let you put anything you want after the phrase “Alexa, trigger…” including echo reserved words. Apparently Google home, because it doesn’t use a special phrasing for IFTTT, get tripped up by its own reserved words. Even when using IFTTT. So the link above is worth checking if you’ve been having trouble with specific phrases, even if it’s not for harmony.

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Good to have a list of the reserved phrases. I have mine working with control4 and just use “press pause” to get around the reserved words, also for selecting sources “turn on (source name) in (room name)”. lights are just “family room lights on” to control a simulated ST switch that controls a particular scene with CoRE

So I have Google Home connected to ST and Lightify RGBW lights connected to ST. I can tell Google Home to change the bulb color - but what colors does it understand? Is there a list somewhere? Also, when I try using Cool White or Daylight, the bulb color is not what I expect (based on what Cool White is through the ST app).

How do I get the different white temperatures we have in the app through voice commands?

Thanks!

I have the same issue with my philips hue color bulbs. What I found is if I tell Google to turn the lights to Vanilla it will work every time. From there you can dim if needed. What really annoys me is that the strip lighting by Hue has no issues when I say, turn the kitchen lights to white. Just the bulbs have issues :frowning:

Ken~

These used to be the official hue color names, but they don’t all work now:

http://m.imgur.com/CqqCSao?r

One alternative is to create a scene using the exact colors that you want and then use voice to activate that scene instead of trying to use color names.

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I am not sure just where Google Home is pulling named colors from. I can ask for almost anything (copper, taupe, lavender, gold, etc.) and it applies a decent approximation.

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ive been finding the colours a but hit and miss so now using IFTTT and a few scenes and its working like a charm , in fact i like the way i can add a few different names for the same colour / scene

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Does GH support scenes when bridged directly to philips hub? On philips FAQ it is stated that this function is not yet supported.

You can do it through IFTTT using the Philips Hue Service/Channel as the “that” or with a virtual switch and Core.

Can anyone check this for me? For a while today I was able to play music from my uploaded music library on Google Play music today. Now I can’t again.

Anyone else able to do it?

It’s working for me. Google Play (uploaded) music library > GH.