Google Home
- Thread starter sesevans
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 30 Sep 2005
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- 16,553
Google Home is rubbish
I have all philips hue lights and a nest thermostat. The nest is perfect, the lights however are shockingly bad.
ok google, are the main bedroom lights on = "the main bedroom light is currently unavailable" <-- It's on and works in the hue app
ok google, are the bedroom lights on = "chloes bedroom light is off, 4 are on" <--- Not correct
ok google, turn on chloes bedroom light = (web search)
The only thing it got right is the led strip behind the lounge TV.
ok google, turn on the tv lights and change to green = Worked!
Siri is 100% accurate with the same questions using the mrs iPhone, unfortunately Siri doesn't work with the Nest ARGH! Here we go with home automation and different protocols.
The TV integration is obviously chromecast, netflix and youtube which accounts for probably 10% of my overall viewing. That's mainly Sky and Amazon Prime.
Spotify is good, not as good as on the phone>chromecast audio mind but it's probably it's more useful feature.
Basic questions are ok, but for anything more you need to physically sit in front of a browser. Can't see me keeping it to be honest. Thank god I bought it online so I can return it within 14 days. Nearly picked one up from the High Street as well!
If the protocols get sorted and all manufacturers jump on board (which they won't), then it's a good 5 years away IMHO. Potential, but nowhere near the star trek experience we're all after.
The next version of Home needs to be location aware (ie, a Home placed in every room so simple commands like turn on lights, turn the lights on based on the room you are in). The command I issued yesterday turned all the lights on in the house lol
That said, the inner geek in me still kinda likes it. Does anyone know of any wireless curtain/blind rails? Somfy do some good looking ones, but unsure about compatibility with google home. I have a wireless video doorbell on order and have the nest smoke detectors and two security cameras ready for fitting. Might do them this weekend.
I have all philips hue lights and a nest thermostat. The nest is perfect, the lights however are shockingly bad.
ok google, are the main bedroom lights on = "the main bedroom light is currently unavailable" <-- It's on and works in the hue app
ok google, are the bedroom lights on = "chloes bedroom light is off, 4 are on" <--- Not correct
ok google, turn on chloes bedroom light = (web search)
The only thing it got right is the led strip behind the lounge TV.
ok google, turn on the tv lights and change to green = Worked!
Siri is 100% accurate with the same questions using the mrs iPhone, unfortunately Siri doesn't work with the Nest ARGH! Here we go with home automation and different protocols.
The TV integration is obviously chromecast, netflix and youtube which accounts for probably 10% of my overall viewing. That's mainly Sky and Amazon Prime.
Spotify is good, not as good as on the phone>chromecast audio mind but it's probably it's more useful feature.
Basic questions are ok, but for anything more you need to physically sit in front of a browser. Can't see me keeping it to be honest. Thank god I bought it online so I can return it within 14 days. Nearly picked one up from the High Street as well!
If the protocols get sorted and all manufacturers jump on board (which they won't), then it's a good 5 years away IMHO. Potential, but nowhere near the star trek experience we're all after.
The next version of Home needs to be location aware (ie, a Home placed in every room so simple commands like turn on lights, turn the lights on based on the room you are in). The command I issued yesterday turned all the lights on in the house lol
That said, the inner geek in me still kinda likes it. Does anyone know of any wireless curtain/blind rails? Somfy do some good looking ones, but unsure about compatibility with google home. I have a wireless video doorbell on order and have the nest smoke detectors and two security cameras ready for fitting. Might do them this weekend.
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Soldato
This is what I use with Alexa, you just have to create the routines and then say "Alexa, ask Harmony to play BBC1" etc. and then in my case it will turn on the TV, Sky box and then go to channel 101. I imagine Google Home will work very much the same.
My WiFi and Home arrived yesterday, even though my previous message said delivery on next business day! That was great news as I had Saturday to play around with both after set-up. Setting up WiFi two pucks took less than 20 minutes. A call to Virgin Media allowed them to turn off the router from the Virgin hub and make it Modem only. I figured that would be quicker than re-setting the Virgin Admin page myself--that took less than 5 minutes, although Virgin rep tried to talk me out of it! When I asked why, he said they had the worlds best router (ahem!) and could no longer see my router activity!!
I agree the Nest Thermostat and Nest Protect work perfectly with Home. Thanks for your comments about Philips Hue and the problems you are having with a number of the rooms in your home. I was thinking of getting the Philips Hue starter pack and lights but will continue to study other forums about it first.
I mentioned that I visited the Google store-within-a-store at Tottenham Court Road on Thursday (launch day) and they had a Philips Hue light set up near their live display of Home. They also had Chromecast play YouTube on a nearby TV monitor. Both worked flawlessly. The single Philips Hue light dimmed and changed colours on the voice command. You might consider speaking with them if you are near the shop soon.....I was told they were setting up similar live displays at two other London shops, including Fulham Road.
In Google Home Services menu they list about 100 tasks and I noticed that they highlight the August Smart Lock and August Connect Wi-Fi Bridge to lock your door and check its status. You have to set up each August Smart Lock with the Bridge and link August to your Google account. Then it says you can use Home with it. Is this the device you have "on order"? If so, perhaps you can share its cost, and once you receive, how easy is install and integration with Home?
I hope you can find answers to your Philips Hue problems. I did not see Somfy blinds as listed as a Service on Home. Perhaps you can achieve a link with IFTTT? I read that IFTTT than help with such simple things like finding a lost phone within the house. As to the camera/security, and I presume you are talking about the Nest camera solution, what features are you trying to get to work with Home? I thought watching video play live or on replay is the reason to get the Nest camera?
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August smart locks are not good, they are deadlock switches and don't replace the bolt that locks, they have very little torque to close the door so once your deadlocks get stick, it will no longer work. What's worse is that it doesn't tell you if it failed to lock the only smartlock I can recommend is the yale keyfree lock which replaces the standard lock - this has access via a mechanical key, keypad, keyfob and smart access with your home automation, with added bonus that when the battery dies, there's an emergency battery access on the front.
Thanks. That is really a great observation. I will keep an eye out for when the Yale keyfree lock Task is synced to Home.
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It already works with samsung smartthings which is really more important than google home
What are some of the main activities you use smartthings for? I saw the £ 199 starter kit and including various sensors and power outlet. Do you use in together with Samsung appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, etc) and the smart Yale lock we were talking about earlier? Thanks.
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it's a central hub, which is pretty much the main object all devices point to, there are a few other hubs out there, but Samsung is by far the best with a massive community developing good integrations for smart hardware that isn't officially supported by the manufacturers (look at lightwave rf integration).
Smartthings comes with a ream of protocol support, so where you might be limited to certain manufacturers with google home integration, smartthings lets you use all protocols, as a result, you can use Alexa and google home on the same "mesh" to do the same thing (like lights off), use google home to connect to devices that aren't supported by google home and more.
TLDR, it lifts the walls off the google home garden so you can use anything you want.
Well my first impressions of Home are good. The voice recognition is excellent and for things like playing music by a certain artist or a particular radio station, it's great.
Unlike others on here I have a Hue set-up. I've not had any problems at all. It turns the lights on or off, changes the colour and the brightness. I've been pleased with how well it's integrated to be honest.
Unlike others on here I have a Hue set-up. I've not had any problems at all. It turns the lights on or off, changes the colour and the brightness. I've been pleased with how well it's integrated to be honest.
Soldato
Just a small clarification there, with a Yale Keyfree you can't use a the keyfob as well as a home automation system like Smartthings as you have to have the correct module for one or the other. However I have this exact lock and I bought one of the Smartthings presence sensors which works OK, although sometimes I have to wait 10 seconds or so when I get to the front door. It is really handy when I've been travelling though and the sensor is somewhere in my case, where normally I'd be looking for my key I'm pretty much straight in now. Although the battery life seems terrible on the presence sensors, my first one only lasted a couple of months.
It would be nice if Smartthings supported BLE (the hardware is there in the hub) but reading through the forums it looks like this is never actually going to happen even though Samsung apparently used to say it would at some point.
Permabanned
Just to add to that - you can use the smartthings app to unlock your door as described here, I've seen a few community threads on the door lock to setup better smartphone integration, you can use many methods via the z-wave protocol, personally - smartphone access would be enough for me, either on connection to the home wifi, or a button press. The choice is yours thanks to smartthings.
I also like the presence of mind they had by putting a emergency battery slot on the lock.
Soldato
Yes I use the Smartthings widget sometimes if I've forgotten my sensor, and if my phone isn't charged then I just enter a code. 
The only thing that would put me off the Keyfree again is the amount of modification that needed to be done to my brand new front door - I was hoping it would be a direct replacement for my old lock/handle in case I ever want to change it for something else.
The only thing that would put me off the Keyfree again is the amount of modification that needed to be done to my brand new front door - I was hoping it would be a direct replacement for my old lock/handle in case I ever want to change it for something else.
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This is why I'm waiting to have a new door that comes with it than have it done seperate, I've been told its not an easy fit so not gonna try myself... latest quote I'm getting for a composite door + this is 1700, which isn't bad when you realise the lock is £400
Soldato
Yes I thought maybe I could have fitted it myself until I saw how much cutting/routing the guy did! Fortunately I really like the lock so I can't see a reason to change for a while.
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With Bixby on the S8, you can talk directly with smartthings so you don't need a sensor - your phone will be the equivelant of Alexa. Getting mine next week wootwoot.
Perhaps you missed the news today?
Bixby Voice will be delayed when Samsung releases the Galaxy S8 on 21 April. Are you surprised that Samsung software adaptations have problems? Sadly I am not. Samsung requires considerable talent and data in order to perfect Artificial Intelligence software such as what Bixby Voice purports to do. Because Samsung is an Android phone, Google will be placing its Google Assistant front and centre on the S8 homescreen. GA runs circles around Bixby because it is genuinely Artificial Intelligence software that works, gains massive data to perfect and refine it and has leading AI engineers working at Google. The lowest bar you need to overcome in AI software must surely be voice to text. Even Facebook, not considered a software powerhouse, can now clear this low bar. Samsung cannot. Remember Samsung Dex? Another poor software execution that is not useful. I consider much of Samsung software on its phones to be bloatware, merely duplicating what superior Google software already does. Bixby's launch does not augur well for Samsung's software efforts.
My purpose is not to rate Samsung software capabilities because I think the market has done that already. It is easy to find complaints about Samsung software bloatware in most blog sites. In my opinion, the reason Samsung outsells other Android manufacturers is because of its excellent hardware implementation, including screen and camera. Its screen in particular is worth highlighting.
Incidentally, one of the criticisms of the Pixel launch was its limited availability. I believe a major reason for the delays in production was due to limited availability of screens. There has been talk that Google has been in talks with LG Display concerning a significant investment in a new LG screen assembly plant for OLED displays, in order to secure supply for the Pixel 2's. Samsung has a definite competitive advantage in screens and it is a clear leader.
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I wouldn't knock bixby before trying it, you don't need billion dollar AI research to setup home automation, you just need it to understand which command you are calling, and bixby is built by the same people who built siri, we should take it with a bit more of an open mind than its generic bloatware, it has deep integration with samsung connect and thus smartthings, which is all you need to control everything in the home, Google home is a nice device as is Alexa, but it they all run through Samsung smartthings to access everything, this is just a better case of tying everything in. Google / Amazon offer nothing from the phone, which is all I need to not purchase 3 google home / alexa devices.
Soldato
You can't unlock the Yale Keyfree (and I assume other smartlocks) with voice assistants on Smartthings for obvious reasons. You can lock them, but the Keyfree locks after a maximum of 90 seconds (default is 9 seconds) so you know it's locked after you get in pretty much straight away anyway so I've never used that.
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"You don't need billion dollar AI research to set up home automation..." Hmmm....Voice recognition is built up with machine learning and AI and both needs loads of data to work well. And Google harvests more info than virtually any company in the world. To understand your intentions and voice is not as simple as understanding "which command you are calling"....there are often different voices, background noise, difficult to learn only commands that are scripted as opposed to commands that are contextual, etc etc. Not everyone has the time or interest in learning set commands....that is not how we naturally speak. Samsung cannot do basic AI....voice to text....which Google mastered years ago. It seems that the "SIRI team" that is building Bixby now realises how hard AI is as Bixby Voice is already delayed. According to news reports, the team first decided to try to get Bixby to understand Korean, not English. But the vast majority of phones Samsung sells are to non-Korean speakers.
"Google/Alexa offer nothing from the phone...." Really? Google has already figured out how you can have your phone and Home in the same space and have your answers given through Home. Google figured out direct integration with some smart home applications before they introduced Home to the UK. Seems to me that Google Assistant is likely to ramp up very quickly. It has thousands of devs working on Google Android. It is not necessary to go through Samsung Smartthings to "access everything". You can access Nest, Philips Hue, etc directly through Home connected to WiFi. That list is likely to grow quickly. Home is much, much more than a dependency on Smartthings.
Samsung Galaxy S8 users will see Google Assistant front and centre on their homescreen and a non-working Bixby button. I expect this screw-up by Samsung is likely to get users accustomed to Google Assistant quickly (and perhaps buy Home).
I will gladly keep an open mind. But this is hardly an auspicious start for Bixby.