feedback on Google Home mini?

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iamsammajor

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#251498 28-Jun-2019 09:46

hi everyone

Does anyone have one of the minis siting around their TV?

Can the minis react to Hey Google, when the TV is on normal volume? not crazily loud?

Online review put echo dot on the winner side when it comes to mic performance.

Saw price of mini is quite good in Disk smith, thinking of getting one

cheers,

Sam

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#2266087 28-Jun-2019 09:56

Dont have a mini, but do have an original Google Home. Its in the living room, but opposite end to the TV. On occasion it does react to things in the room including the TV. Strange things, like I can be talking to my kids (no TV) and suddenly it'll beep to acknowledge the "OK Google" or "Hey Google" keywords even though no one has said that. Not often, just the odd occasion.

There have been times when its responded to the TV too. Pretty sure there was a Modern Family episode where they got a Google Home and mine was responding to them. Pretty sure that was intentional by the writers too ;-)

No reason to expect the mini would be different other than whether the microphones in them are better/worse than the original Google Home.

Short answer: Yep it may pick up on things from your TV.

iamsammajor

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#2266090 28-Jun-2019 10:02

nzkc:

Dont have a mini, but do have an original Google Home. Its in the living room, but opposite end to the TV. On occasion it does react to things in the room including the TV. Strange things, like I can be talking to my kids (no TV) and suddenly it'll beep to acknowledge the "OK Google" or "Hey Google" keywords even though no one has said that. Not often, just the odd occasion.

There have been times when its responded to the TV too. Pretty sure there was a Modern Family episode where they got a Google Home and mine was responding to them. Pretty sure that was intentional by the writers too ;-)

No reason to expect the mini would be different other than whether the microphones in them are better/worse than the original Google Home.

Short answer: Yep it may pick up on things from your TV.

thanks for the input, thats helpful. my other question is if the movie, and you want to talk to google home, would whatver you are playing block the your saying of "hey Google"?

Zorg2000

73 posts

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#2266093 28-Jun-2019 10:04

I have one underneath a TV and it can hear me fine when the TV is on.

nzkc

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#2266099 28-Jun-2019 10:09

I'll say: it usually does.

Personally, I don't think the microphones in the original Google Home are all that great. Although things have improved, I suppose through firmware and software improvements. Certainly not terrible, far from that. Just not amazing either. Positioning of your GH may assist or hamper that too I suppose. Also accents do affect its ability to pick up your voice. For a while early on it would struggle to "hear" my wife. Was quite funny for the rest of the family though! Its definitely improved there.

If background noise is loud it struggles more to hear you - as you'd expect really.

nzkc

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#2266102 28-Jun-2019 10:11

To further illustrate an example of large background noise...

My kids love to play Spotify through it. Loudly. So you sometimes have to "shout" the "Hey Google" to get it to pick that up. When it hears that, it softens the music so you can talk to it. Its pretty good at it overall.

And seeing those prices on DSE - I'd say grab one! They're fun. And useful. I'd just make sure they're not refurbished units at their price. Cause it seems its that or they're offloading stock and know something (is a new version around the corner?)

iamsammajor

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#2266104 28-Jun-2019 10:13

thank you guys, i am going to give it a shot, if dont like it then will sell it for couples of beers lol

dan

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#2266105 28-Jun-2019 10:14

i have a mini in my home theatre cabinet, its useless when the tv is on, although it always picks up hey google, it will nearly always get the specifc command wrong

mine is bascially next to the centre speaker in the 5.1 system, so its not ideal placement to be fair

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iamsammajor

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#2266107 28-Jun-2019 10:15

dan:

i have a mini in my home theatre cabinet, its useless when the tv is on, although it always picks up hey google, it will nearly always get the specifc command wrong

mine is bascially next to the centre speaker in the 5.1 system, so its not ideal placement to be fair

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

dan

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#2266109 28-Jun-2019 10:17

i just pause whatever is playing whenever i want to use that specific mini or the chance it will get the command wrong is very high

iamsammajor

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#2266110 28-Jun-2019 10:19

oh that, yeah i can see it can be a bit annoying you tried echo dot?

reven

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#2266112 28-Jun-2019 10:20

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.

Groucho

524 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2266113 28-Jun-2019 10:24

If you're concerned about your Mini reacting to TV/movie soundtracks, I'm pretty sure you can change the trigger phrase to something a lot more unique to you. Of course I've just had a really quick look in my phone for where that setting hides and naturally can't find it. Might have to "Hey Google" it?

jonathan18

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#2266118 28-Jun-2019 10:32

For those with Google Home Minis or similar: what happens when you are near both one of these devices and your phone when Google Assistant on the phone is set up to automatically respond (even when screen is off)? Can you/do you need to change the key words/name of one of the devices to ensure both don't pick up at the same time?

iamsammajor

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#2266121 28-Jun-2019 10:36

Groucho:

If you're concerned about your Mini reacting to TV/movie soundtracks, I'm pretty sure you can change the trigger phrase to something a lot more unique to you. Of course I've just had a really quick look in my phone for where that setting hides and naturally can't find it. Might have to "Hey Google" it?

i think im more worried it cant hear me when the tv is on or music is playing

reven

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#2266122 28-Jun-2019 10:36

if im near 2, the one that hears me the best responds.

Dont know about my phone, its not setup that way.

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