Hello Automators. Thanks for tuning in again. One of our most popular videos
here are the Google Home new features new updates and new products videos that
I run here every couple of weeks I basically put out all the latest
features and all the latest products that are related to the Google Home the
Google Assistant and you know you see some of these partner products that
basically Google puts out over the years now that is so popular because so many
people want new functionality and new capabilities with their home automation
and smart home products now what I want to do today is give you a full review of
the 2018 year and go through basically how Google did and give you an idea then
of how far they're gonna move in 2019 so let's get going now of course when we
talk about 2018 we're gonna talk about 2019 and where some of those things are
going but ultimately I have a whole separate 2019 predictions video coming
out for you here right in the new year so let's get going through what Google
did in 2018 and really when I think about Google's year it comes down to two
events we saw a Google i/o and then we saw the Google Hardware event so earlier
in the year Google puts out Google i/o they do their conference and blows the
world apart with Google duplex and some of the functionality we saw with you
know the lense on maps and that integration between Maps and Google
Assistant and just so many new capabilities coming out for the Google
Assistant then we switch over to the hardware event where we saw the pixel 3
the Google Home Hub here and actually Google was a little behind in terms of
releasing a smart display cuz Lenovo had already been out there so you know those
were really the big releases that day from Google the pixel 3 the pixel 3 XL
and the Google Home Hub we also saw other product releases but we'll get to
those shortly now on top of all of that Google was also out there to try and
become a multinational or an international force with their home and
life automation products so what they did this year they promised this
relatively early 30 different countries or 30 different languages would be added
to the Google Assistant and while they haven't necessarily released them all
officially almost everyone is sitting there today and you know and when you
think about the expansion into countries like Italy India Spain we've seen the
Netherlands and Norway and Sweden there's a number of countries that got
the Google Home products as well as Google Assistant related products over
2018 so there was this massive massive expansion and trying to go international
now coupled with that are of course the capabilities related to languages that
we saw so all of these devices can now speak two languages to you and you can
interchange per command or per question or query that you want to ask these
devices so you can actually set two languages and this was put out kind of
middle mid to late year they put out the capability of having two languages on
the device and switching between them now in terms of new products that we saw
come out you know this probably people don't even remember this but Google
clips was actually released this year and you don't see it here you don't see
it in a lot of places cuz to be honest the rollout wasn't very big it wasn't
very powerful they weren't pushing this product but I think the idea of clips
was to start working with some of what was coming in these products and if you
think forward again to Google i/o and then the hardware event the capabilities
of image processing showing up on the pixel 3 and the capabilities of that
maps integration with the Google Assistant really comes from some of that
early stuff with clips so that was a different product and I don't think
we're ever going to see Google clips go huge but ultimately that was their first
release and their first foray into image processing at such a massive massive
level now we've talked about the Google Home Hub here's the aqua version
of the Google Home Mini. Those were releases there's also a brand new
Chromecast this is an older one but there's a brand new Chromecast came out
with low-power Bluetooth so you're able to fully do that now the other things
that came out are a little more subtle or they're from Nest so the Nest cam IQ
is sitting here and it has the Google Assistant on board and that was a that
was a release or a change of the Nest Cam IQs in most people's home but now
you see the Google Assistant right on board with this product every time
it's sold the other thing from Nest you think about the temperature sensor that
was just a little addition but it gives you a secondary temperature point for
the Nest thermostats and then the Nest Hello which is still the most popular
doorbell camera here our smart home doorbell on the market today so that all
came out this year now the other things that you don't really think about when
you think about Google are things like the Lenovo Smart Display here and
honestly I think and this is the 10-inch version I think this is the premier
smart display out there this is a fantastic device don't get me wrong but
what Google did with partnering with Lenovo we've seen you know JBL come out
with their own version and we know LG has one now and there's going to be more
and more and more of these devices and there's been a ton of other just
speakers with the Google Assistant on board so Google has really proliferated
if you think about their products and that expansion of all these different
countries and and the language capabilities that they built this year
their expansion is massive into all these different marketplaces so now
moving on to some of the capabilities we saw and some of these you'll remember
and some of these you won't but there is a ton of capability that was built in
2018 and it surprised me as I went back through what Google had done over the
year it was surprising to think that continued conversations came out this
year, Duplex Google Duplex was released this
year. Now continued conversations going back there for a second isn't on a smart
display and that's one of the things we'll talk
about a little bit later when we talk about the grading of Google's year
overall now some you know a little bit smaller changes the ability to schedule
routine so Google has given you now that routines capability full on here in 2018
or as full as they ever got so scheduling the routines was a capability
in some of those custom commands that actually is really really powerful
feature that you can use within routines that wasn't there in 2017 so scheduling
those routines the other thing is the ambient mode now I have a clock here on
the Lenovo Smart Display and I had pictures running here but they were
gonna change the camera lens there so I actually turned this off but you know
the ambient mode improvements the experimental mode the ability to connect
to Google Photos those improvements in 2018 were a big deal to a lot of people
and a big deal for these smart displays and of course the Chromecast now on top
of those features if we just skip over to Chromecast a little bit here
you had the Chromecast version two and three recently added to multi-room audio
and that's a massive massive change for that device we also saw the visuals
actually come out and really drop off now visuals was something that a lot of
people were excited about because you could get search results published on
any cast-enabled device or you could get things like weather and there was
supposed to be other little applets and features but we didn't see a whole lot
around those Chromecast devices or around that visual component to the cast
enabled devices there were some nuances or some nuance changes that occurred to
the way Google Assistant worked and you know one of the capabilities here that
I'm talking about is basically that contextual home control so you know it
used to be they had to say which room you were talking about but now that we
group devices into rooms and we group our Google Home products into rooms they
can contextually turn off lights they're in that room just by saying turn off the
lights so that capability just a small small tweak that really changed
how we interacted with these devices we also saw great improvements in terms of
duo integration and this kind of came out really out of left field
for a lot of people because if we weren't clear which video service or
which messaging service or which service in general Google was going to use for
this kind of capability now on their Google Home Hub you can make those dual
calls you can see the other person but you don't have a camera so there was a
real lack of focus it seemed like but duo integration came this year and works
fantastically on devices like the Lenovo smart display another component that
really changed here digital well-being and this is something that I love to see
Google focusing on they've put it in all of their Google Assistant related
products basically but the ability to limit what shows up on the devices and
then limit basically what time those devices are operating or doing anything
so the downtime so you know other than alarms for example you don't have
anything come out of these devices during that downtime and that's really
powerful for managing your home so a couple things we talked about alarms now
music alarms showed up here or the capability was basically pushed out to a
lot of people for music and media alarm so that meant radio that meant your
music on your any of your connected services Pandora was released as well
but that music alarm capability has never actually worked correctly for a
lot of people and I still getting these messages to to this day about the the
volume slider basically not working for media or music alarms so you know the
capability was put out you can do it but it will blow you away based on the
volume of your device overall and that's where scheduled routines become really
important for you to basically manage the volume on your device so there's
still the ability now to do those remote broadcasts so basically from your phone
with a Google Assistant application on board or from a tablet outside of the
house you can basically broadcast all of your home devices now obviously
Google never gave us the ability to direct our broadcasts or as an intercom
or a drop in type feature like Amazon has but they did put out this remote
broadcast capability now on top of that 10,000 devices over 10,000 devices and
services can now be connected here and I'm not gonna talk about all of those
but the massive expansion this year from Google of connected services and
connected products it's incredible and it's fantastic to see and we know it's
going to accelerate with all of the partnerships they've made so let's talk
about now ultimately how I feel Google did over 2018 now it would be crazy to
sit here and say that Google accomplished everything that I think
they wanted to this year and it would be crazy to say that Google has fixed
everything that they needed to or need to with these devices but they have
accomplished a ton when you think about the simplistic nature of these devices
by comparison to where we are today you know at the start of 2018 these were
really simple by comparison to what we have today we didn't have an interface a
physical visual interface we didn't have that multi-room audio was really just
out there and the ability to synchronize you know audio wasn't really there
either you now have this sophisticated management system and just the app
redesign shows you how much Google is trying to fit into these devices and
into the interfaces that you use so the growth was massive it wasn't perfect but
it was massive in 2018 and I think in 2019 we're going to see it go another
level because Google has now learned how they're going to integrate different
functionality and how they're gonna push out different functionality how they're
going to give it to certain countries and then wait on other countries they
learn some of their pattern and they're not perfect but they are
going to be able to accelerate and so I think in 2018 what we saw was a lot of
learning from Google as much as a lot of learning from people for how to apply
these products to their lives now you know like I said it's kind of crazy to
say that Google did everything that they need to with these devices I mean we
don't have continued conversations on the smart displays that's a massive
massive feature request we don't even have different languages than English us
as your primary language on these I mean I'm in Canada how hard could this be but
you know ultimately those features aren't there again we still have the
smart displays in general and the interfaces there work really well some
other things that I think kind of bit Google here over the year they still
don't have a hub in these devices this is a big deal to me because and I talked
about this in the 2019 predictions video they need to solve this problem because
Amazon is basically kicking their butt and in terms of home automation and
there's two ways that they're doing that their routines capability on Amazon site
is far and away better at this point I mean Amazon is added the ability to
trigger all kinds of things on motion and contact sensors and and ZigBee
devices in general and Google has zero response for that the best they can do
is schedule routines and that that capability of just being able to
schedule routines and not being able to do a lot with those routines to be
honest you know they have the custom functionality or the custom ability to
trigger anything with the Google Assistant but I can't do a lot because I
don't have conditions that I want to trigger a routine under or trigger some
automation under and without that and I thought they would solve that in 2018
that really hurts them I think in terms of automating people's lives and you
know that goes hand in hand ultimately with the lack of a hub on these devices
because if they had a hub any hub and we heard that there's a z-wave hub here you
would be able to start tying in those different devices you know and then
triggering those routines and this so this is where I say my 20-19 predictions
video has a pretty wild prediction here I'll give you a little precursor
essentially they have to come out with how they're going to do that in 2019 or
they're going to lose home automation to Amazon completely so that they have to
solve and they didn't solve in 2018 for me so that hurts them quite a bit now
the other thing is the app had to be redesigned and this is where I say they
had a lot to learn and you know we had a lot to learn as a result and it helps
guys like me with YouTube channels but ultimately for Google they've got to
learn how to integrate these new capabilities functions into that
application and make it easier to navigate
we don't need eight ways to get to the same thing we just need one easy way or
two easy ways at most to get to the same thing so the app redesign I thought
initially excellent but I know a lot of people are frustrated or confused by
that application so overall when you think about the massive amount of
devices that came out the massive amount of capability and functions new features
that came out from Google and that huge growth in terms of integration with
smart home products services other other basically services that relate to
automating your life overall I get to a b-grade for Google I you know a would
have been nailing routines this year a would have been having a hub or a system
for me to build home automation under within the Google ecosystem but be
really is where I land in terms of a grade for Google this year and looking
forward to 2019 I know they're going to fix that grade they just weren't ready
to do it here in 2018 so there you have it everyone
that's my 2018 Google Home automation or smart home year in
view so as always go ahead click that subscribe button join our channel here
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