Google Home

It’s tricky to get my Google Home to play CBC Radio One: depending on the way I ask, it’s as likely, for reasons unknown, to play the private radio station CFCY instead.

Here’s a transcript of my attempts:

Me: OK Google, play CBC Radio One.

Google Home: Streaming 95.1 FM CFCY from Tunein.

Me: OK Google, stop. OK Google, play CBC Radio.

Google Home: Streaming 95.1 FM CFCY from Tunein.

Me: OK Google, stop. OK Google, play CBC Charlottetown.

Google Home: Streaming CBC Radio One from Tunein.

I’ve almost trained my brain to do this the right way every time, but I still get it wrong about 20% of the time.

It’s tricky to get my Google Home to play CBC Radio One: depending on the way I ask, it’s as likely, for reasons unknown, to play the private radio station CFCY instead.

Here’s a transcript of my attempts:

Me: OK Google, play CBC Radio One.

Google Home: Streaming 95.1 FM CFCY from Tunein.

Me: OK Google, stop. OK Google, play CBC Radio.

Google Home: Streaming 95.1 FM CFCY from Tunein.

Me: OK Google, stop. OK Google, play CBC Charlottetown.

Google Home: Streaming CBC Radio One from Tunein.

I’ve almost trained my brain to do this the right way every time, but I still get it wrong about 20% of the time.

On Thursday morning I was immersed in a video conference, with the personable Josh MacFadyen, when I got a text message:

As Oliver was across the street, at home, and “five machine” sounds a lot like “fire machine,” which is something someone might say when the house is burning down and they are panicking, I immediately ran across the street to rescue Oliver.

Oliver was fine.

The buzzer on the clothes dryer had gone off, and Oliver was simply, helpfully, letting me know.

Here’s how the text message got to me:

Oliver was upstairs in bed.

The dryer’s buzzer went off.

Oliver has a Google Home in his bedroom, so he asked it to call me:

OK Google, call Peter.

The Google Home dutifully called my office number.

But my officer number automatically goes to voicemail, so Oliver left a voicemail (the one you can listen to above).

The voicemail went to my voicemail system, which is set to automatically speech-to-text transcribe voicemails and email them to me.

Which is how I got the text message “Five machine went off at home.”

Lower shields.

On Thursday morning I was immersed in a video conference, with the personable Josh MacFadyen, when I got a text message:

As Oliver was across the street, at home, and “five machine” sounds a lot like “fire machine,” which is something someone might say when the house is burning down and they are panicking, I immediately ran across the street to rescue Oliver.

Oliver was fine.

The buzzer on the clothes dryer had gone off, and Oliver was simply, helpfully, letting me know.

Here’s how the text message got to me:

Oliver was upstairs in bed.

The dryer’s buzzer went off.

Oliver has a Google Home in his bedroom, so he asked it to call me:

OK Google, call Peter.

The Google Home dutifully called my office number.

But my officer number automatically goes to voicemail, so Oliver left a voicemail (the one you can listen to above).

The voicemail went to my voicemail system, which is set to automatically speech-to-text transcribe voicemails and email them to me.

Which is how I got the text message “Five machine went off at home.”

Lower shields.

I mistakenly told my Google Home to make a telephone call this morning–”Hey Google, call Richard’s Fish & Chips.”

This was a mistake, because the Google Home can’t make telephone calls.

Except that it can.

Apparently the Google Home now has a new superpower, which is making free telephone calls in the U.S. and Canada.

So when I said “Hey Google, call Richard’s Fish & Chips,” Google figured out which Richard’s I wanted (it knows where I am, because I told it where my Google Home is located when I first set it up), and placed a call for me.

It also works for “Hey Google, Call Catherine.” And it knew to call her cell phone.

It can’t yet send text messages, it can’t yet receive calls, and its response when you try to call a number it doesn’t recognize is the stock “I don’t know how to help with that” rather than “I don’t have a number for them” or something more specific.

But, it’s still pretty keen. I’m not sure why I’d ever use an actual telephone to call out from the office ever again.

A reminder that the Google Home is now available in Canada: you can purchase one from Best Buy, Walmart, Staples or The Source, or direct from Google.

And remember: once you have yours, be sure to say “Hey Google, ask Farmer’s Almanac about today.”

I mistakenly told my Google Home to make a telephone call this morning–”Hey Google, call Richard’s Fish & Chips.”

This was a mistake, because the Google Home can’t make telephone calls.

Except that it can.

Apparently the Google Home now has a new superpower, which is making free telephone calls in the U.S. and Canada.

So when I said “Hey Google, call Richard’s Fish & Chips,” Google figured out which Richard’s I wanted (it knows where I am, because I told it where my Google Home is located when I first set it up), and placed a call for me.

It also works for “Hey Google, Call Catherine.” And it knew to call her cell phone.

It can’t yet send text messages, it can’t yet receive calls, and its response when you try to call a number it doesn’t recognize is the stock “I don’t know how to help with that” rather than “I don’t have a number for them” or something more specific.

But, it’s still pretty keen. I’m not sure why I’d ever use an actual telephone to call out from the office ever again.

A reminder that the Google Home is now available in Canada: you can purchase one from Best Buy, Walmart, Staples or The Source, or direct from Google.

And remember: once you have yours, be sure to say “Hey Google, ask Farmer’s Almanac about today.”