Well it's July and we've got several new Google Assistant features to go over for
various Google Assistant devices including group video calling on Google
Assistant displays, action blocks, and new features rolling out to third-party
Google Assistant speakers. Now before we dive into those features a word of
warning if you live outside of the US or if you're in the US but you don't use
the US English version of the Google Assistant, some of the features that are
demoed in this video may not have rolled out to you just yet.
Also special thanks to LetyShops who partnered with us to bring you this
video. Alright, first up let's talk about group video calling with Google
Assistant displays. Google has just announced that it's bringing group video
calling to assistant displays like the Nest Hub Max and third-party ones like
the Lenovo smart display. You'll be able to group call with up to 32 people on
Google Duo but keep in mind that you will need to create these groups in the
duo app first before you can use them on your assistant display and call that
group. For joining a Google Meet call you'll be able to type in the room code
on the display itself or tell Google to join your next meeting and it'll pull
the meeting link from your Google Calendar event. Google is also rolling
out its new speed dial feature it announced earlier in the year that
allows you to call your friends and family faster from assistant displays.
Josh: "Hey Google, add household contacts." Google: "Got it, go ahead and pick your household contacts.
All right done."
Next up, Google has announced that it's rolling out new features for third-party
Google assistant speakers like those made by Bose, JBL, and Sonos. First up is
voice match, where you'll be able to teach the assistant on these speakers to
recognize up to six different voices. Hot word sensitivity is also being added as
well which allows you to adjust how sensitive a speaker is to the hot word
you use to trigger the assistant. Also there's another update to voice match
when you set up a Google Assistant, now for the first time Google will now
require you to say full phrases when teaching the Google Assistant your voice
versus before where you just had to save the trigger word. This should help
distinguish your voice from other members of your household who also used
the Google Assistant. Now the last feature that Google has brought to
third-party Google assistant speakers is being able to set a default speaker. So
for example say you have a Sonos or Bose speaker and you set the default
speaker, you can set that default speaker to either a different Google Assistant
speaker or a speaker group, so when you tell the Google Assistant on the Bose or
Sonos speaker to play music and media, it will play music and media on that
default speaker or speaker group. Just note though that right now third-party
Google Assistant speakers they can't actually be part of a Google Cast
speaker groups at the time of this recording, though Google and their blog
post did say that they're aiming to bring feature parody to third-party
speakers, so hopefully that feature is coming sooner rather than later. Now if
you're looking at getting new Google Assistant devices like a third-party
Google Assistant speakers or the Google Pixel 4a rumored to come out at any
moment now, and you want to save some money on that purchase, you should check
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shopping smartly. Alright next up let's talk about the Google Home app. The
Google Home app settings has always been kind of a bit much to navigate and
Google is finally doing something about it. The settings part of the app has
gotten a significant update with a material theme rooms and devices have
their own section. There's a new delete this home shortcut at the bottom. The
services section pulls some of the settings out of the Google Assistant
settings making them easier to access. Also Google made it easier to find the
works with Google info so you can more quickly get to that page to link smart
home products to your home. Next up Android TV, now I don't have any updates
here on the rumored successor to the Chromecast that comes with a remote but
if you currently have an Android TV, Google is now rolling out the ability to
add Android TVs to cast speaker groups. Now if you're ever in a situation where
you can't find your phone and you ask the Google Assistant for help but you
have multiple phones, Google can now help you out in this situation as well. The
Google Assistant will now roll off a list of phones that you may own if you
have more than one it will also list off your iPhone based on the phone number
that you gave Google when you set up the Google Assistant device. Josh: "Hey Google, where's my phone?"
Google: "I found a few phones, the first listed is your Pixel 4 XL should I ring it now?
How about the pixel 3a?" Josh: "No." Google: "Should I call your phone ending in bleeeeeeeeeeep?"
Google: "I can't find any more phones linked to your Google account." Speaking of
phones, if you have an Android phone there's actually a pretty cool new way
to trigger Google Assistant actions on your Android phone ,especially for
situations where you don't really want to use your voice to get the Google
Assistant to do something for you. That's what Action Blocks is for and what
action blocks are are basically widgets that you can place on your home screen
and when you press them they will trigger Google Assistant actions. All you
need to do is download the action block app from the Google Play Store and then
create a specific Google Assistant command in the app. You don't just have
to limit yourself to single requests here either you can do multiple requests
in a single action block. You can then test out the action once you create it
give it an image and a name and then place it in one of your home screens it
basically turns your Android smartphone into a remote control for Google
Assistant actions. Which is legit and these blocks can also work with specific
actions that only work on your phone like texting someone or putting your
phone on silent etc. Alright just two more quick things before we wrap up,
first Google has announced that they are rolling out support for third-party
Wi-Fi routers to integrate with the Google Assistant so you'll be able to
eventually ask the Google Assistant with these routers what your Wi-Fi speed is
etc. Lastly if you've been using the photo frame feature on your Google
Assistant display and you've wanted to change the photos that Google is pulling
photos from on the display itself well now you can. All you have to do is
swipe up from the bottom and click settings, then select photo frame you'll
then be able to select and deselect the Google Photos albums that the Google
smart display is pulling from. Well that's it for all the updates I've got
for you right now, let me know in the comments if you've been enjoying some of
the new features that Google has rolled out or if we may have missed one and if
you liked this video and found it helpful, make sure you hit that thumbs up
button below and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more
assistant feature update videos and Google videos like this one. For
6 Months Later, I'm Josh Tedder, thanks for watching.