Google continues to bring brand new innovations to it’s smart home speakers and other Google Assistant products. Some innovations will be more usable and applicable then others. All the same, Google’s consistent ability to innovate always leaves users impressed. Here is an overview of the new features for Google Home.
Interpreter Mode
This is one of the most useful things that Google is bringing to the Google Assistant in some time. While this will be most useful on Google Assistant-enabled phones, users may be able to use with with their smart speakers as well. Users can now use the Google Assistant to translate conversations in real time. According to Google, the assistant now understands 19 languages, with more being added in the near future. Users can initiate interpreter mode by asking the Google Assistant to turn it on. Interpreter mode is ended by saying “Stop”, “Exit”, or “Quit”.
Continued Conversation
This is a new feature that is sure to have mixed results. Google Assistant-enabled devices can now be configured to continue listening after the “Hey Google” or “OK Google” trigger commands, so that the user doesn’t have to repeat the trigger commands multiple times. The assistant will continue to listen for up to 8 seconds, or until the user says “Thank you” or “I’m done”. The benefits of this may be overweighed by the privacy concerns, however. This leaves even more time for the Google Assistant to collect data and possibly overhear conversations that were not meant to be captured.
New Voices
Another feature that Google is adding is new voices for your the assistant. Now available are multiple different male and female voices, as well as a few voices with British and Australian accents as well. Google has also debuted a “celebrity” voice as well – John Legend. This is a fairly useless change, but is fun to play with. The John Legend voice really shows an interesting piece of innovation – the ability to take someone else’s voice and have it say whatever the assistant requires.
Which one of these new features for Google Home is your favorite? As always, please reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram and let me know what you think!
Schuyler
I am a husband, father, and tech enthusiast living in Saratoga County, New York. I have spent the past 10 years (and counting!) honing my technical skills traveling the United States as a technical specialist for a software company out of Albany, NY. In addition to that, I've spent the past two and a half years implementing affordable smart home solutions in my home.
