feedback on Google Home mini?

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1134 posts

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#2266126 28-Jun-2019 10:40

if the phone picks it up it will ether respond itself and execute the command or if its a question will answer the question on one of the google home units (if im at home when i ask it)

if not at home it will respond on the phone

i find the google home stuff very flakey on my note 8 since it upgraded to Android 9 tho. was fine before the upgrade.

iamsammajor

370 posts

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#2266127 28-Jun-2019 10:42

reven:

i have both.

The mic on the echo dot is way better than the google home mini. by a large margin.

the google home is a lot smarter though, by a large margin, where it will answer most questions pretty reasonable. and you can do follow up questsions, like "hey google, when was batman release", "who starred in it", etc. with alexa you would have to do "alexa, when was batman release", "alexa, who starred in batman".

I find the alexa randomly active a lot more than google home minis (could be due to the microphone, but i dont think so).

My biggest issue with google home is it often says "sorry, i could not verify your voice" stopping me adding things to a shopping list. this happens enough to be annoying. and i have to go and reverify my voice on my phone.

However, I would still go with google home over alexa, due to the intelligence of the google home.

alexa are nice with your amazon shipping notifications though, and they have a "drop in" feature, so I could drop into my home, or do a intercom thing through the house. thats a really cool feature i wish google had.

i mainly want to use it to turn on tv or light etc, question wise i wont worry it that much,

and by the sound of it echo might be better?

reven

3743 posts

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#2266136 28-Jun-2019 10:54

echo also isnt room aware, so if you have multiple rooms you have to say

"Alexa, turn off family room lights"

whereas the google home you can say this device is in the family room then just say "hey google, turn off lights". however that will turn on/off all lights in that room, so you have to leave lights out of a room if you dont want it doing that.

alexa, also has groups so you can say "alexa, turn off downstairs lights". google home doesnt have this. also annoying. but you can fake this one using 3rd party software (by making a switch called "downstairs lights" and having that do it for you, alexa just makes this easier).

Dial111

978 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2266141 28-Jun-2019 10:59

I have a mini next to my soundbar which is under the TV and no issues whatsoever with the volume up, my only issue is I have a Home Hub in the kitchen about 7-8m away(open plan) and I usually trigger both when I use the command, so in saying that it is quite sensitive to voice or either that I'm yelling.

iamsammajor

370 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#2266189 28-Jun-2019 11:40

reven:

echo also isnt room aware, so if you have multiple rooms you have to say

"Alexa, turn off family room lights"

whereas the google home you can say this device is in the family room then just say "hey google, turn off lights". however that will turn on/off all lights in that room, so you have to leave lights out of a room if you dont want it doing that.

alexa, also has groups so you can say "alexa, turn off downstairs lights". google home doesnt have this. also annoying. but you can fake this one using 3rd party software (by making a switch called "downstairs lights" and having that do it for you, alexa just makes this easier).

oh i wasnt aware of it, thanks for bring it up :)

nitro

658 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2266203 28-Jun-2019 12:03

reven:

alexa, also has groups so you can say "alexa, turn off downstairs lights". google home doesnt have this. also annoying. but you can fake this one using 3rd party software (by making a switch called "downstairs lights" and having that do it for you, alexa just makes this easier).

eh, what?

'turn bedroom 2 lights on/off' works for me, when i'm in the lounge (not in bedroom 2).

when in the same room, it's just 'turn on the lights' / 'turn lights on'... or even 'turn wall light on', 'turn mirror light on'.

i think i see what you mean... when 'downstairs lights' are in different rooms.

iamsammajor

370 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#2266219 28-Jun-2019 12:22

nitro:
reven:

alexa, also has groups so you can say "alexa, turn off downstairs lights". google home doesnt have this. also annoying. but you can fake this one using 3rd party software (by making a switch called "downstairs lights" and having that do it for you, alexa just makes this easier).

eh, what?

'turn bedroom 2 lights on/off' works for me, when i'm in the lounge (not in bedroom 2).

when in the same room, it's just 'turn on the lights' / 'turn lights on'... or even 'turn wall light on', 'turn mirror light on'.

i think i see what you mean... when 'downstairs lights' are in different rooms.

Can you assign it to a room, and when you say lights off , it will know which light to turn off? Unless you say turn off the light in the other room?

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reven

3743 posts

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#2266220 28-Jun-2019 12:22

with alexa,

I cannot say "alexa, turn off lights". i have to specify the lights, eg "alexa, turn off bedroom lights"

with google home, it knows what room the google assistant is in so it can turn on/off the lights in that room. eg "hey google, turn off lights" will turn off the lights in the room the google assistant are in.

iamsammajor

370 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2266221 28-Jun-2019 12:26

reven:
with alexa,

I cannot say "alexa, turn off lights". i have to specify the lights, eg "alexa, turn off bedroom lights"

with google home, it knows what room the google assistant is in so it can turn on/off the lights in that room. eg "hey google, turn off lights" will turn off the lights in the room the google assistant are in.

Oh that can be really handy if going one in each room

digidave

19 posts

Geek

#2266232 28-Jun-2019 12:55

reven:
with alexa,

I cannot say "alexa, turn off lights". i have to specify the lights, eg "alexa, turn off bedroom lights"

with google home, it knows what room the google assistant is in so it can turn on/off the lights in that room. eg "hey google, turn off lights" will turn off the lights in the room the google assistant are in.

You can do this with Alexa / Echos, it works for me

You just need to group lights / units together in same room

The “Alexa lights on” / “Alexa lights off” only switches the lights in that room / group

Jase2985

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#2266242 28-Jun-2019 13:01

iamsammajor:

oh that is when the TV doesn't lower the volume when you taking to it right?

it will only lower the volume when you say "OK google" when what you are watching has been cast to the TV.

reven

3743 posts

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#2266246 28-Jun-2019 13:12

digidave:
reven:

with alexa,

I cannot say "alexa, turn off lights". i have to specify the lights, eg "alexa, turn off bedroom lights"

with google home, it knows what room the google assistant is in so it can turn on/off the lights in that room. eg "hey google, turn off lights" will turn off the lights in the room the google assistant are in.

You can do this with Alexa / Echos, it works for me

You just need to group lights / units together in same room

The “Alexa lights on” / “Alexa lights off” only switches the lights in that room / group

that must me newish. wasnt there when i first step mine up

Martin_NZ

130 posts

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#2266263 28-Jun-2019 13:41

If your phone and the mini detect the trigger phrase the mini seems to take priority and the command is only executed on one.

You cannot change the trigger phrase. Hey Google or OK Google are the only options (for now)

When it's sitting close to another noise source there can be troubles detecting the trigger phrase, but once it responds to the trigger phrase it seems to pick thins up ok. With the caveat that anything loud is going to drown out your voice and would occur whichever device you use.

Continued conversation is a great feature and no other assistant has it as far as I know. eg "Hey Google whats todays weather.". (google home responds with weather) "what about tomorrow" (resonds with tomorrows weather) "What about next week".... etc.

I love the shopping list feature. "Hey google add eggs to my shopping list" OK I added eggs t your shopping list "add butter" "add milk" etc view your list at https://shoppinglist.google.com

I have many devices connected to my google home including wifi light switches, heat pump, chromecasts, chromecast audios.

Grouping speakers is cool I can have the same music playing on all (or just some) of my smart speakers "hey google play release radar from spotify on all speakers"

Netflix. "Hey google play Stranger Things on living room chromecast"

Photos. "Hey google show photos of Mum on kitchen tv" (works with photos.google.com)

Routines are great (don't know if alexa does these) eg when I say "Hey google goodnight" she turns off all the lights, turns on my bedroom light, turns off all the TV's, turns off the living room heat pump, etc (and a whole lot more you can configure

My primary criticism of the GH is that google does tend to screw around with things. One day things work just fine and have done for months, next day following an automatic update sometimes things break. About a year ago they released an update that caused a global outage of google home devices. Took several days for it to be sorted out.

For the price they are great smart assistant and well worth taking a punt on. I looked at Alexa but decided against it and several people I know have ditched their alexas and gone to google home.

Ping me if you have any specific questions.

iamsammajor

370 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2266270 28-Jun-2019 13:50

Martin_NZ:

If your phone and the mini detect the trigger phrase the mini seems to take priority and the command is only executed on one.

You cannot change the trigger phrase. Hey Google or OK Google are the only options (for now)

When it's sitting close to another noise source there can be troubles detecting the trigger phrase, but once it responds to the trigger phrase it seems to pick thins up ok. With the caveat that anything loud is going to drown out your voice and would occur whichever device you use.

Continued conversation is a great feature and no other assistant has it as far as I know. eg "Hey Google whats todays weather.". (google home responds with weather) "what about tomorrow" (resonds with tomorrows weather) "What about next week".... etc.

I love the shopping list feature. "Hey google add eggs to my shopping list" OK I added eggs t your shopping list "add butter" "add milk" etc view your list at https://shoppinglist.google.com

I have many devices connected to my google home including wifi light switches, heat pump, chromecasts, chromecast audios.

Grouping speakers is cool I can have the same music playing on all (or just some) of my smart speakers "hey google play release radar from spotify on all speakers"

Netflix. "Hey google play Stranger Things on living room chromecast"

Photos. "Hey google show photos of Mum on kitchen tv" (works with photos.google.com)

Routines are great (don't know if alexa does these) eg when I say "Hey google goodnight" she turns off all the lights, turns on my bedroom light, turns off all the TV's, turns off the living room heat pump, etc (and a whole lot more you can configure

My primary criticism of the GH is that google does tend to screw around with things. One day things work just fine and have done for months, next day following an automatic update sometimes things break. About a year ago they released an update that caused a global outage of google home devices. Took several days for it to be sorted out.

For the price they are great smart assistant and well worth taking a punt on. I looked at Alexa but decided against it and several people I know have ditched their alexas and gone to google home.

Ping me if you have any specific questions.

thanks for the detailed info, I think i would try them both, i guess the only way to find out which one suits me better is to try it.

at the moment, i have hue lights and harmony hub, so it control it both for me. i will be happy;

nitro

658 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2266277 28-Jun-2019 13:57

iamsammajor:
reven:

with alexa,

I cannot say "alexa, turn off lights". i have to specify the lights, eg "alexa, turn off bedroom lights"

with google home, it knows what room the google assistant is in so it can turn on/off the lights in that room. eg "hey google, turn off lights" will turn off the lights in the room the google assistant are in.

Oh that can be really handy if going one in each room

yes, that's quite handy (for me). i do have one in each bedroom and the lounge... have one bound for the kitchen, too.

note that that does not work with mobile phones, as they cannot be assigned to rooms... er, 'mobile'.

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