[Release] [Closed] Google Assistant Relay V1 - Google Home Audio Notifications!

Thanks for keeping us update on this and too, not simply abandoning the project!!

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Almost Friday! Hope this thing is still on track at Google!

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I really hope so too :grinning:

Ready for Friday!:+1:

Unfortunately, it’s been pushed back to next Friday :confused:

amdoh commented 7 hours ago
Hi guys, I just want to give a quick update. The fix was submitted, and unfortunately we had to roll it back later since it caused other issues. New ETA is next Friday. Sorry for the inconveniences!

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greg, im trying to understand what is the differance between this thred and this one, could you help explain, thanks

If you want full control of each of your Chromecast devices cast-web is way better, it doesn’t even compare, this one just seems to be a hack.

This one is the best for broadcast notifications. It exactly mimics what google does when you use the “broadcast” command either verberally or via the app. It also allows you to send practically any command that follows ok google via text.

The other apps convert your Google home devices into smart “things”, allowing you to do whatever you want with speakers on the smart thing ecosystem. Including making them speak.

It really depends on your usecase, to decide one over the other. Biggest advantage with this method here - no interruptions to what ever is already playing on your device - music, news, podcast whatever. It is of course limited by what ever google allows you to do, since it really depends on Google’s own broadcast API at the core level. Therefore, no fine tuned control (yet), so cannot do things like broadcast to a single speaker.

And people who thing this is a “hack” just need to spend some time reading more about the underlying tech for each! Although, it can be argued that everything is a hack when it comes to smart things custom device handlers since it’s all coded by (smart) third party developers/enthusiasts.

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The cast handlers are essentially casting content to your Chromecast in the same way your phone will. It will interrupt whatever it is doing and has no state.

This uses the Google Assistant SDK so you can interact directly with the Assistant from SmartThings. The main functionality this has at the moment is to use the broadcast functionality for voice notifications (when Google fix it on Friday)

It’ll resume state, so if you have music playing on your Google Home, you can broadcast an TTS notification which will fade the volume of the music, play the audio notification and then continue playing the music (or whatever it was doing). Something the cast functionality cannot do

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With the greatest respect Greg, I think you haven’t used cast-web. I’m listening to Radio 5 Live on 4 Chromecasts, I had a TTS notification come through, then Radio 5 Live resumed again.

this is why i asked the question as im finding the cast api a bit buggy, im having to restat the node/js, device showing playing when there not or there even off

That only works if Cast-Web was what you used to start the content in the first place. Today I was casting to my kitchen speaker from my phone because all my podcasts are synced across multiple devices. A voice notification came through and my podcast did not resume. Personally, I have both Cast-web and Assistant relay set up. Both work simultaneously without a problem. I use cast web to play audio (sound) notifications or control the volume and i use assistant relay for spoken voice notifications. Why can’t we use both for what each does better. :smiley:

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Greg:

Thanks for tracking the issue and the updates, really appreciated.

Do you know if the fix from Google will just re-enable TTS automagically, or if we’re going to need to update something to pick up the change?

Thanks.

They’re supposed to rollout a fix in the backend so theoretically, if you never closed the script it should start working again this Friday.

Restarting the script might be needed at some point tho.

As for cast-web, while it’s different from AssRelay, I personally prefer the latter. It’s more robust and more useful for my needs.

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hopefully there won’t be a delay between Ghs…

Has anyone else noticed that GH is less responsive. Sometimes not answering me all.

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As @kebel871 said, it should be a backend change at Google so it should magically start working again :slight_smile:

Yep… It’s working again!

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confirmed working here again too! =D

Woot!! Back :slight_smile:

Finally! This is such a huge part of my HA.

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