Google Home Help line 1-855-971-9121

[mike27oct]

Had to call them for some answers. Very helpful support lady.

1.  I asked why I could not request a specific song title by a specific artist.  It is because of what I suspected, since I did not sign up for any of their free samples of Google Play Music nor YouTube Music. the only requested music I can listen to is their free "radio mix" playlists  Alexa can play specific requests with no hassle for free.  I was told this is a common complaint of GH.

2.  Bluetooth capability is coming "soon".

3.  Found out how to connect and use my current TP link smart plugs and Kasa app for control by GH; which I am about to configure.

[malliekm]

Yep, I find the GH help people better equipped to help (and understand) than Amazon...and Amazon Echo help is pretty good! 

I don't know if you saw my post but you can listen to your Amazon Music/Unlimited/playlists on your GH. 

I wish (and I've sent feedback) GH would just say "ok" when you tell her to turn something on/off.  She's a bit long winded when a simple "ok" would suffice.

[renegade600]

Yep, I find the GH help people better equipped to help (and understand) than Amazon...and Amazon Echo help is pretty good! 

I don't know if you saw my post but you can listen to your Amazon Music/Unlimited/playlists on your GH. 

I wish (and I've sent feedback) GH would just say "ok" when you tell her to turn something on/off. She's a bit long winded when a simple "ok" would suffice.

like most women  :-)   seriously, I think google considers it being more conversational and realistic.  they should let users have a choice, especially if using it when others are sleeping.

[malliekm]

Are ya sayin' we're chatty? LOL, well, we are   I feel Echo's personality is more polite and proper while GH is chatty and casual.  I totally agree with letting the users choose how GH responds to these common commands.  When it comes to acknowledging a command, I prefer the "less is best' mode.

[mike27oct]

Yes, agree with you both; GH is long-winded -- to a fault.

Yes, Monica, saw your post, but have not tried it yet.  You see, I had to call GH Help back after a while.  Problem so severe it took a complete reset of the device to defaults and re-setup to get it fixed.  My Echos have never needed a reset to defaults.  Minus 10 points for GH.

Here is the situation:  After getting guidance on getting GH and TP Link and Kasa to play well together, I got our lamps to be controlled by GH, just like they are with Alexa.  No drama or problems.

A while later I started to play my music on Home as I had before from my iPad.  For whatever reason, the iPad app could not connect to the Home, even though it was showing as available.  After trying every way possible to get the connection going I un-linked the Home from home network.  I could never see the hotspot Home emits to get on the network.  I finally gave up and called GH Help again.

The guy agreed things were hosed after he had me jump through some hoops, and I finally said let's reset the GH back to factory defaults.  This meant I would have set it up from scratch.  The way to reset to defaults was to press the button in back and hold in for around 10 seconds.  After reset and setting up again, the Home showed up again in the iPad app, and I could play music to it again via Chromecast.  This was a bother and time-consuming, so I hope I never need to do the reset again.

Overall, my experiences and lack of features of GH so far prompt me to say: I definitely recommend to a new user to buy an Alexa device over the GH.  The GH is not completely ready for prime time.  That said, I do like how my music setup and using the iPad and specialized app to play music to Home via Chromecast is a good trick, and makes it worth it for me -- as long as more factory resets will not be required.

[malliekm]

Didn't I send you a pm telling you to have both KASA and GH up to date from the Play Store before trying to set up your TP-Link outlets?  When I got ready to sync GH with the outlets, TP-Link wasn't listed as compatible but I knew they were.  Went to the Play Store and checked for updates.  Both GH and Kasa had updates.  Once that was done, the syncing was as easy as the GH setup it's self.  I haven't had to reset any of my AIs, Alexa or GH.  Maybe it was something on the user end that necessitated the reset...or not...probably that dang Apple device.  Apple is against my religion as you know (g).

Overall MY very positive experience would prompt me to say: I definitely recommend a new user buy a Google Home device over the Alexa.  I wouldn't have said that 2-3 months ago but they've made a lot of improvements recently. I haven't heard of anyone having set up problems with GH.  Plenty of people get stuck at the setup level with Alexa.

What features does GH not that Alexa does?  I guess they are ones I don't use.  GH doesn't do reminders yet but like I told someone on the Google Home forum, till it does, just say "OK Google, set an alarm for 12 noon on July the 4". 
Have you tried telling GH to remember things?  I could really use that feature if I could remember what it is I'd like to remember 

Reading about casting my Amz music from my tab or phone onto GH was another biggie.  I'm just using freebie music streaming right now and since I spend the money to be a Prime member, I wasn't going to spend more on different music streaming sites. 

Oh, I like Echo's shopping list better than Google's.

[mike27oct]

My apps were up to data. Recall that I have had a Chromecast and Echo for years, so have had the appropriate apps for a long time, and they get updated regularly.  I did not suggest setting up Kasa on my GH caused any problem and was related to the trashing of my Home today.  In fact, when all was fixed again my smart plugs worked fine; nothing got harmed.  Devices crash often enough for no apparent reason and that is what happened to GH today.

[renegade600]

Are ya sayin' we're chatty? LOL, well, we are   I feel Echo's personality is more polite and proper while GH is chatty and casual.  I totally agree with letting the users choose how GH responds to these common commands.  When it comes to acknowledging a command, I prefer the "less is best' mode.

I guess you did not have the echo when they did away with the okay and just had a beep for little while.  I guess they got an avalanche of complaints so they changed it back.  I hated the beep...was glad when okay came back.