google skill

[mike27oct]

@aross1976

Quite the rant about the google skill.  I'd say it is a poorly developed skill, so if you want Google-ability in an AI device get a Google Home.  I have a lot of Alexa devices and two GH devices.  Get yourself one as well.

[malliekm]

It's hard to believe a little skill incited so much hatred and hostility.  Are you sure your wife didn't leave you for someone that works at Google?   Dump the skill, spend $49 on a GH Mini and watch the hostility melt away...unless of course your wife really did leave you for a Google employee  

I have 3 Echo Dots.  I've had them since Dec of last year.  I have 2 GHs and 1 Mini (another Mini will arrive tomorrow).  It's not even a contest.  GH out performs Alexa hands down.  That wasn't the case when GH first came out but over the year, it's improved exponentially!  BTW, the Mini sounds better than and is louder than the Dot.

[aross1976]

well the  coolest thing i saw it do is custom responses  which  alexa can not do buy hopefully it will get added at some point

of course you will need a home to do things that require location services like ask  business hours for stores and  locations  of stores and what not,  though  you think it would be able to at least tell you some information with the alexa skill about location  of stores but it won't at all

google refused to replace or repair my defective 6p which has a faulty battery and microphone since day 1  with it well under warranty  they are a horrible company and they treat their customers like they are lower than whale  crap and  they are a cancerous monopoly who i  would not feel at all comfortable handing even more  of my data to ,not like they  don't have it all already  but after being burned on the nexus  i really do not want to do any more business with them

and does the mini even have a 3.5mm out ?

i really do hate google and think it should die in a fire , they are always crippling their  devices and services through "updates"  ,or    their   services and products  do not work as advertised

some examples ,  you are supposed to be able to use  GA on the phone(at least the nexus 6p on N) like a GH  ,but it does not work.
 they say you can  ask it to  cast a youtube video(do not even get me started on what they have done to youtube) to a CC hands free  by voice like with a google home but it doesn't work at all

and  that brings us to CC another awful mess
i purchased  one for my elderly dad who has no internet or wifi except on  his phone
after much frustration i got it working with just his phone after using a 3rd device for the initial setup
it was working with no wifi network or router just the  phones hotspot and the CC

then he got a new phone and google changed the cast app to the google home app and now it no longer works unless you have a wifi router ,now i will have to waste time  trying to find and manually install  old google cast .apk's to both his phone and the  other 3rd  device i use to set it all up to get it working again and it probably still will not work

i really do not want to have multiple devices  laying around either or learn a new smart home platform

[malliekm]

OK, now we're getting somewhere.  You do have a beef with Google.  I guess you just came here to trash them.  I'm not looking at Google with rose colored glasses.  I'm sure they're out to rule the world as is Amazon.  I bet if Amazon had burned you on a product, you'd be saying these things about them.  Both companies are way too embedded and invested in our private lives.  We've been slowly conditioned for years to accept the invasion into our private lives.  These AIs are just the latest (and more obvious) devices to do so.  Both companies are trying to make life impossible without them...and they're pretty much succeeding.  I don't trust either one of them.  Having said that, I LOVE my AIs and my 2 day free shipping (that isn't really free since the price is usually higher)!  Tomorrow there will be seven of them inhabiting my home.  We're out numbered 7 to 2

I can use GA on my Samsung Galaxy S7 just like I use the GHs.  It's just much easier to talk to the GH (in every room of the house) than it is to make sure I have my phone in hand and press the button.  I can use GA on my phone to ask questions, add to my shopping list, set reminders (that transfer to GH and emit a tone and a single white light as a reminder I have a reminder), etc.  Maybe you need to update your phone or GA.  More times than not when I ask Alexa a question, I get "Sorry, I'm not sure".  That rarely happens with GH.  How can my experience be so drastically different from yours?

No GH doesn't have a 3.5mm out.  That might be a problem for some.  Doesn't affect me at all. 
I don't use CC anymore because of the excessive data it uses 24/7.  I'm on satellite with a very limited data cap.  There's no such thing as unlimited on satellite.  But I have 2 CC and did use them (before I discovered what was draining my data).  I cast from my Android phone and tab all the time.  It does work.  I just asked GH "what is the past tense of cast?"  Casted didn't sound right!  It gave me a summary of how casted was a word in every century from the 14th but has given way to "cast" in modern English.  I asked Alexa.  She gave me the cast of a (I suppose movie) "Past Tense".  I reworded my question and got the "Sorry, I'm not sure" routine. 

Why don't you keep your Alexas, buy an Apple or MS phone, use a different browser on your computer and be happy?
You don't have a Google email address do you?

[aross1976]

i didn't come here to bash them per se
 i am  just wondering why the google skill for alexa is so bad
i bet if you install it on your echo and then ask all 3 AI's the same questions , alexa, GH ,and alexa google skill
that the google alexa skill will perform  far far worse than both alexa and the actual GH

i am fine on android and i do have several google  and  gmail accounts
they just are constantly breaking things and removing features and functionality  and mainly because they want their  stupid  crappy minimalist material design

pretty soon all google  apps and services will just be a  blank white screen
of course crapple  tries to do the same ,itunes is a good example

i am saying doing specific things  on GA does not work  on my nexus which is supposed to be the reference android device

it is updated to the latest except  not to oreo which was just pushed OTA yesterday to my phone

GA is up to date  it just never works as promised ,it is supposed to work like a GH and i am supposed to be able to activate it hands free with ok google detection and  then ask it to play a youtube video on my TV/CC and have it cast the youtube video to the TV
all hands free all by voice but it does not work

just like i am supposed to be able to be able to ask it to navigate to a specific place and have it open maps and start driving directions  voice navigation directions  by voice all hands free , which also never works , their AI is retarded it just turns everything into a google search
i still have to pick up the phone while driving  to get it to start giving navigation voice directions and also it  doesn't work at all if the phone is in landscape,which i always have it in  while driving , their developers are beyond retarded and their management is even more retarded for signing off and letting this broken  unfinished garbage get published

also their support is non existent ,  at least i can say one thing about amazon is that their support and customer service is impeccable you can actually always reach someone who speaks legible english and knows  what they are talking about

all google has is awful support forums where people ask specific direct questions and get no straightforward answers just evasive ramblings and the threads run on for literally tens of thousands of pages with no answers

amazon usually just keeps on adding new features without removing things their general trajectory is upward where as google is just a horrible regressive company that turns everything it touches into bloody  diarrhea

it's good to know that the GH min has no 3.5mm ,and  i bet it has no bluetooth either

see this is a perfect example of google's mental retardation
they had like a year to observe their competitor the  echo dot and they didn't even bother to match its capabilities to make it competitive with the dot ,plus the dot is always on sale for $40 ,you can bet the GH mini will always be priced at $50 $10 higher, and less features

Here are some more examples ,they removed SD slots from their phones ,they removed miracast from  the nexus and pixel(you have to root it get it back or buy a CC for every tv even if it already smart and had miracast built in) , they removed  front facing stereo speakers  from the pixel 1 , they removed 3.5mm from the pixel 2  ,they removed the ability to  view comment replies and reply to them from the notification bell drop down menu in youtube,  now you have to   go back to the video again and wait for it to load  and then wait for the comment section to load just to reply to a comment ,or even read a comment reply longer than one sentence , i am sure you love this   with you having a data cap , i don't have any cap and it pisses me off to  no end ,i used to be able to comment and reply to comment replies easily and respond to many comments but now it takes  500 times longer than before and has made communication nearly impossible
i could literally go on all day at how awful and retarded google is

[mike27oct]

>>>    i am  just wondering why the google skill for alexa is so bad

Maybe no one here uses the damn thing, or even CARES if or WHY it is bad.