Category: Google Home

Red Bull TV has joined the ranks of HBO Now Netflix and CBC All Access as being casted to your Chromecast enabled TV from Google Home.  Now using Google Assistant, you can ask for content from the service without having to manually do so from your phone or tablet.  Even better, no account linking is required.

To try it out, just say, “Hey Google, play How to MTB on my TV” and the show How to MTB from Red Bull TV will be casted to your television.  If you aren’t familiar with RBTV, you can check out all their shows here.

Earlier this week I posted about Google Assistant now supporting the Italian language.  The question, as I posed in that post, was if it was a prelude to the Italian Google Store seeing Google Home coming soon.  Now we know the answer is yes.

On the Google Store site in Italy, you can now purchase a Google Home or Google Home Mini.  Home is €149, about $183 while the Home Mini is €59 or about $72 US.  They are on sale now and both models are available.

This is a feature that a lot of Google Home users have been wanting.  Location aware reminders has now rolled out to Google Home, meaning that if you set a reminder on your Home device, a reminder will be sent to you on your phone when you arrive at that location.  It is pretty slick and most certainly handy.

Yup, we’ve all been there. Try saying, “Hey Google, set a reminder to pick up more coffee at the grocery store” and your Google Assistant will remind you on your phone. pic.twitter.com/IkLjV4I2zd

— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) March 14, 2018

How it works is straightforward.  If you are at home and say, “Hey Google, remind me to buy milk when I’m at the grocery store”, the reminder will be set as any other reminder on Google Home.  But, when you leave the house and you arrive at the grocery store, you will get a notification on your phone with the reminder.

After being announced late last month that they would be coming soon, Google has finally rolled out Routines for Google Assistant.  The six routines allow you to perform certain tasks and get information all with one “Hey, Google” command on your Google Home device or your Android phone.  They are designed to make the experience more personal but also more helpful by not having to give Assistant multiple commands to get information.

In all there are six Routines that rolled out today:

• Good Morning
• Bedtime
• Leaving home
• I’m home
• Commuting to work
• Commuting home

It should be noted that both of the Commuting routines are only for your smartphone and won’t work on your Google Home.

Good news for those of you in the UK.  You can now make hands free calls to contacts through your Google Home or Home Mini.  The feature rolled out in the United States last August and allows you to leverage Google Assistant to place calls to contacts or business that can be found in Google search.

Using it is very easy.  Just say, “Hey Google, Call my son”.  Because I would have tagged my son in my contacts, Google Assistant will place the outbound call to my son.  If a contact has multiple numbers, you will be prompted on which number to place the call.

Google has begun rolling out a feature Google Home visualization feature today, allowing you to ask Google Assistant to display the weather forecast on your Chromecast enabled device.  The new feature is a cloud-side change so there is nothing for you to do.  You will know when you have the feature on your account when you ask Assistant on your Google Home, “Hey Google, show me the weather on my Chromecast”.

Visualizations with Assistant and Home were shows last year at Google I/O as a way to improve getting personalized content.  In the case of the weather, you can visually see the weather forecast instead of having to listen to Assistant read it back to you on your device or Google Home.