Well it's February and a lot has happened
since our last Google Assistant feature update video Google has released quite a few new
features for Google Assistant devices so let's dive right in and a word of warning if you
live outside of the United States or you live in the US but you don't use the u.s english version
of the Google Assistant, some of the features demoed in this video may not have rolled out to
you just yet. First up let's talk video calling. You can now make video calls on the Google
Nest Hub Max by using either Google Meet or Zoom. Before using Zoom you'll need to link
your Zoom account in the Google Home app. To do that open the Google Home app tap settings,
voice and video calls, video and voice apps, and then tap Zoom to create or link to an
existing Zoom account.
To start a call with either Google Meet or Zoom, tap your Nest Hub
Max and navigate over to the communicate tab and tap to start a meeting. When you start a Google
Meet meeting you can start a new meeting, join a meeting with a meeting id, or join a meeting on
your calendar. The same goes for Zoom as well, so now keeping up with your friends and family
can be even easier with your Nest Hub Max.
Next up is a feature that's been a long time coming for
Google Assistant displays and is now finally out: family notes. Family notes create digital notes
you'll see on all of the displays in your home. You can create one by asking Google to create a
family note. Here's an example. Josh: "Hey Google, create a family note." Google: "What do you want
it to say?" Josh: "Don't forget to wax the sleds." Google: "Sure, your family notes been created." If you
have more than one family note they'll stack on top of each other in the displays ui.
Tap a family
note to see a grid view that will display all of your family notes and tap on a specific note in
order to delete it. You can also navigate to a new family tab on a Google Assistant display to
see all of your family's notes as well as timers. Sticking with Google Assistant displays for a
second, did you know that you can set a timer on an assistant display and then it'll proceed
to play ridiculous animal noises? Well it can, here's an example.
Josh: "Set a
chicken timer for 10 minutes." Google: "Sure a 10 minute timer called
chicken and we're starting now." Google: "Your chicken timer is up." Next up let's talk about routines on Android
devices. When you open a routine in the Google Home app you'll now see a pop-up asking if you
want to add this routine to your home screen after the pop-up goes away or if you don't see
one, you should also see a new icon that appears up at the top that allows you to push the
routine to an icon on your Android home screen, making it more convenient to run. Next up, for
owners of smart lights, Google has added a new feature to control smart lighting with the Google
Assistant. You can now tell the Google Assistant to turn on or off the lights at a specified
time, so for example, you can tell the Google Assistant to turn off the lights in five minutes,
turn off the lights at midnight ,or turn off a specific group of lights at a specified time
and you can even ask the Google Assistant to turn on or off the lights at sunrise and sunset.
Josh: "Turn on the humidifier for 10 minutes." Google: "Allright, I'll turn on josh's humidifier
for 10 minutes." Setting up routines is still the best way to turn on and off your lights at
specified times during the week and if you're interested in learning more about that make sure
you check out the Google Assistant routines video we did which i'll link here in this video and in
the video description below.
Speaking of routines, Google has updated the ability for you to be
able to start them at sunrise and sunset when you create them. To see this in action, let's
go into the Google Home app then tap routines, and then the plus button to create a new routine.
When you tap add starter you'll now see the option for sunrise and sunset which is pretty useful.
If
you go into an existing routine that you've set up you might not see the option for sunrise and
sunset and might have to redo an existing routine you'd like to trigger at sunrise sunset. Moving
on one thing we've all probably experienced at one point or another, though probably not during
the pandemic, is when you have people over and you have a home with a lot of Google Assistant
devices sometimes people tend to ask the devices really dumb questions or they try to ask what's on
your calendar or what are your reminders you know just prying into some of your personal details
and before, uh the Google Assistant one, would give them that information like for your calendar
for example or two, it would all of those queries would be tied into your personal Google account.
Well not anymore with the new Google Assistant feature guest mode. Guest mode blocks assistant
interactions from being tied to your personal account and people won't be able to see things
on your calendar etc but your guests will still be able to control your smart home devices play
music and media as well as do things like set timers.
To turn on guest mode you just have
to tell the Google Assistant to turn on guest mode. Josh: "turn on guest mode." Google: "guest
mode's on." When you turn it on you'll see that Google will put an icon on the screen and will
play a sound after a query letting you know that guest mode is on. To turn off guest mode just ask
the Google Assistant to turn it off. All right a few more things about guest mode. Depending on
the music service you use with guest mode those music queries that people are asking the Google
Assistant for could still be tied to your personal account through that music service. Also audio
recordings are not saved on any Google Assistant device when guest mode is enabled regardless of
the fact if you have given Google permission to save audio recordings with personalized results.
Alright now let's move on to a few more quick updates.
Google's made it easy to identify smart
home products that will be easy to set up with the Google Assistant with a new seamless setup badge
so make sure to look out for it when buying smart home devices. And if you want to learn more
about starting or expanding your smart home make sure to check out our new video on smart
homes which i've linked here in this video and in the video description below.
Lastly
Google has made a nice settings ui change in the Google Home app when looking at settings for
Google Assistant devices. When you click into the settings of a Google device like a Nest Hub Max
in the Google Home app you'll now notice that the settings are divided into categories and from
there you have access to specific settings. So while it's technically one more tap to get to a
setting streamlining the settings page definitely makes it quicker to find the area of settings
you're looking for. Alright, well i hope you found this video helpful and informative and if you
did and liked it make sure you hit that thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see
more Google Assistant feature update videos like this one. We also just do a lot of Google product
videos in general on this channel so if you're interested in that we've actually put together
a Google product playlist so make sure you check that out well.
That's going to do it for me for 6
Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching..
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