it's been a busy two months since our last Google home features update video
in that time Google has rolled out some really impressive updates for the Google
Assistant for your Google home devices now if you're not all caught up yet on
our Google Home features update videos click the card in this video I'll also
leave a link below in the video description to a curated playlists
of all of our Google Home features updates videos that you need to know
about so definitely go check those out if you're not all caught up you can
binge them now it's great but for this video we're going to be talking about
what Google has recently announced and there are some big updates here
including interpreter mode podcasts on speaker groups ride-sharing with the
Google Assistant continued conversations on smart displays and much more now do
you note that these features have launched or are about to launch in the
US for the English version of the Google Assistant if you live outside of the US
or you use a Google Assistant language other than US English you may not see
all of the features that you see in this video just yet alright with that let's
talk about our first feature which is something I've been asking Google for
for a long time you can now play podcasts on speaker groups this feature
is actually part of Google's new google podcasts service you can download the
google podcasts app for your Android device and there are rumors that Google
will be coming out with an iOS version as well
Google podcasts in the simplest explanation I can give just syncs all of
your podcasts across all the devices that you would be listening to a podcast
on to play a podcast on a speaker group just tell Google to play the podcast
name on the speaker group name here's an example play the latest episode of the
podcast The Verge cast on Josh's bedroom speakers alright playing The Verge cast
Apple unveils credit card streaming plans and more on Josh's bedroom
speakers
you can play the podcast on your Google assistant app on your phone stop it and
then pick it up again on a Google home device now most of the time it will pick
up where you left off if you hit stop on one device and then pick it up on
another device in my testing sometimes when you just pause it on one device and
then try to pick it up again Google doesn't always start it off where you
left off in the podcast on a previous device so hopefully they will be
improving the reliability of this feature in relation to speaker group
features Google rolled out a brand new feature to the Google Assistant smart
display devices that allows you to control the group volume of speaker
groups as well as the individual speakers within the group which
previously you could only do from the Google Home app or using your voice it's
really great and this is hands down the Google Assistant/Google Home feature I
have been using the most so far this year that's a new feature in 2019 I have
a lot of Google smart displays now in my residence and when I'm playing music and
walking around my residence and I need to adjust the volume of a speaker in a
speaker group I don't have to have my phone on me I can just go walk right up
to a display in the room adjust that speaker's volume or the entire group's
volume speaking of smart displays interpreter mode has finally gone live
for Google smart displays interpreter mode can help you translate between two
people speaking two different languages live in real-time on a Google Smart
display now at launch the translator mode works with 26 languages I'll be
sure to drop a link below in the description to google's blog post about
interpreter mode where it goes over which languages are supported and some
more details about how the technology actually works in case you're interested
to get started just say interpreter mode and the Google Assistant on your display
will enter interpreter mode you can tell Google what language you want it to
translate to and then simply speak and it'll translate ok before
start talking make sure to wait until you hear this sound let's start excuse
me sir could you tell me where the bathroom is these famous in your father
he has the cinema donde esta el baño it's like something out of Star Trek
there are just so many use cases where this technology could be very useful for
example hotel concierge services or if Google decides to roll this out on
mobile phones which I mean come on they're totally gonna do that if you
could use the Google Assistant on a mobile phone when you're traveling to a
foreign country where you do not know the local language this is going to be a
lifesaver no longer are you going to have to try to crush on a online
dictionary or even Google Translate to just translate simple phrases having a
live real-time interpreter mode to get around a city that you don't know the
language that is just ah it's like Star Trek it's a future that I definitely
want to sign up for to get out of interpreter mode you can just use the
displays main UI gesture to go back which is a swipe from the left edge of
the screen across it one major feature for the Google Assistant that recently
dropped is being able to book an uber or lyft ride-sharing service with the
Google assistant you can look up the prices for lyft or uber from your Google
Home devices and it'll tell you the average fare to your destination how
much will it be to get a lift from Austin International Airport to downtown
Austin okay lift to downtown prices started about $9 I've sent the options
to your phone I need an uber from Austin International Airport to downtown Austin
okay uber to downtown prices started about 17 dollars if you use the Google
Assistant on your phone it'll take you to the ride-sharing app and you can
finish booking your ride share there now just as a reminder for those iPhone
users out there you can actually have the Google Assistant on your eyes
we actually did a video on this a few months ago I'll link it here as a card
in the video pause this video and go watch that in case you're interested
also leave a link to it below in the video description
next up Google has added and expanded to its cards when you ask it what it can do
both on displays and on your mobile phone it's super useful to ask Google
this from time to time because you never know what new abilities you may discover
that have been rolled out to it for example in prepping for this video
I asked Google what it could do scroll through the options and click manage
photos I for one had no idea that you could have the Google Assistant show a
list of your recent photos in a grid view like they are on your mobile phone
and you can just swipe through them with the touch of a finger there are lots of
other things you'll probably discover by just asking Google what can you do
moving on our next topic isn't a new feature for the Google Assistant but I
did want to mention it because it could have major ramifications for why people
choose Google Home speakers and Google home smart displays and that is because
if the rumors are correct from outlets like Engadget, Apple Music will be
making its way to Google home speaker devices and smart displays at some point
this year there's no word on timing for this yet but as soon as we know we'll
let you know now this makes sense from Apple's strategy they just brought Apple
Music - Alexa devices made by Amazon earlier in the year so this totally
aligns with their corporate strategy for Apple Music to bring it to a device like
Google Home devices next up changing the color of your smart lights with the
Google Assistant you've been able to ask Google to change
your lights to a certain color for a while now but Google has officially
rolled out a way for you to do this with touch through the smart displays as well
as the Google home app just click on a light group on either a Google smart
display or in the Google home app then click colors and then you can select the
color you want to change the lights to no more having to mess with multiple
apps just to change color of your life and do you know this
should work with multiple lighting manufacturers and it definitely works
with the Philips you brand next up another update for those of you who have
Google Home smart displays continued conversations has rolled out to Google
smart displays now with continued conversations you can basically say a
trigger word then your query and then directly follow it up with another query
without having to say the trigger word again so it cuts down on the amount of
time you have to use the trigger word to trigger the Google Assistant now this
feature has been available for some time on Google Home smart speakers but now it
is available on both smart speakers and Google smart displays Google who speak
pleaded yet according to Wikipedia Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg is an
American war veteran politician and the mayor of South Bend Indiana our custard
and ice cream similar on the website patch.com
they say both ice cream and frozen custard are made with milk cream and
sugar the additional ingredient that gives
frozen custard its creamy texture is pasteurized egg yolk the last thing I
want to give you an update on is multiple lists with the Google Assistant
a while back Google announced that they had improved the functionality with
lists and the Google assistant where you could create and add to a list that
wasn't the default shopping list for the Google Assistant create a new list okay
what do you want to call it random ideas okay starting a list called random ideas
what do you want to add mini jet ski for squirrels they've started to roll this
out but so far I found this feature to only work with the Google assistant on
my phone and Google smart speakers and not the Google Assistant on my Google
smart displays the Google Assistant can create new lists as well as tell me
what's on them and add items to them but when I go and ask my Google smart
displays to either add something to another list
or tell me what's on it it just doesn't work we'll keep testing this and let you
know when this feature works a little bit better across all of googles devices
but for now it looks like it'll work just fine
for google smart speakers and the Google Assistant on mobile devices well that's
all the updates for today if you like this google home features update video
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videos like this one for 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for
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