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.