Google Home & Assistant Updates – February 2021

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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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