Will shield play nice with Google Home

by dub_starr

I got a google home for the holidays, and am a loyal shield user, with all the news about the shield, and google assitant, and the nvidia spots, and the smarthings hub feature, the shield is starting to look like a full solution for the home.

My question is, will the shield and the google home device realize that they are on the same team? when i say OK, Google, who takes the request? and will the GH understand that the shield picked up the request? If my TV is off, but the shield is still on and i want to play music, will the shield know to let the home play the music? if im playing a game on my shield and want to lisen to music on the GH speaker, will the shield know to ignore this request? Or will i have to specify everything "ok google, play spotify playlist on the living room google home" . i know you guys dont have all the answers, but just wanted to see if you think they will fight, or play nice with each other.

One other question, say i have a shield int he living room, and a nexus player in the bedroom, will a spot only report back to the shield, or would a spot in the bedroom know that it should send its requests to the nexus player?

The possibilities are endless, i think this really could make the smart connected house situation amazing, since its not just a TV device, and not just an audio assistant.

treylek

Not 100% sure what the new assistant capabilities are going to be, but as of right now, the home can only use the sheild as if it were a Chromecast. And even then, it still can't do some things yet.

Bodycount9

I sure hope so. They said Google assistant will work with the Mi Box also. Got a Google Home for Christmas as well and decided not to return it based off that announcement.

I don't have a smart home and I don't subscribe to any of the music services that works with it so Google assistant will be the only thing I would use it with. I sub to Slacker radio. A dollar cheaper than Pandora and unlimited skips unlike Pandora which is a dollar more and only 6 skips an hour. If I wanted 6 skips an hour I'd use iheartradio and not pay a dime.

KagitinganSt

I don't think it will work well initially. I've been asking the Google Home Subreddit, and here's my impression: it's going to work like on the Pixel and Google Home.

You can ask Assistant on the Pixel to play Pandora. But Google Home won't know a thing about, because it's not being cast. Google Home only control's media being cast to another Google Home, Chromecast, or Android TV. It's like Assistants are separate instances, not one omnipresent entity across devices.

And according to Android Central, it doesn't sound like we will find out next week when Shield Rev2 is released. Nvidia says Assistant will come later.

coeusclark

So I'm in the same boat as you. Long time shield owner, just got a Google Home. Currently they actually play pretty nice together, but you have to know the commands. The Google Assistant is definitely supposed to know proximity, so if you have 2 and both hear you the one closest to you will respond. Also, you can tell one device to play something on another device, you just have to say "Play XYZ on Google home in the kitchen" or "Play XYZ on the Shield". So I'm pretty sure as time goes on these devices will play well together. I plan on getting a Spot to add to another room.