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Let me paint a quick scenario for you.
It’s the weekend and you are in full-on get-stuff-done mode. You’re cleaning, picking up, organizing shelves you haven’t touched in a year.
All the while listening to your latest jam on a Chromecast-ennabled speaker. You have the volume up nice and high; nothing crazy, but enough to keep you properly motivated and on-task.
Suddenly, the Pandora or Google Play Music radio station you’ve indulged in for the past hour takes a right turn into Bizarro Town and you need to put on some different music.
You raise your voice and say, “Hey Google…” and see the lights rotate on your Google Home. Next, you go to say something like, “Play Bruno Mars Radio on the Big TV.” Only, Google Home can’t really hear you over the music, so now you get served up some video about the Mars Rover on your TV.
It shouldn’t have to be this way.
Google Has Cleaned This Up
From my experience, getting Google to hear the “OK Google” phrase is pretty easy over just about any loud media. The specifics I request afterward are what really become the issue.
What you should see moving forward (or perhaps already) is a behavior that makes so much sense, you’ll wonder why it wasn’t a thing before.
As long as you can get Google Home to respond to your “OK Google” phrase, the media being casted will immediately lower its volume so Google Home can hear you perfectly.
You’ll note that if your playback was on Google Home’s built in speakers to begin with, this always worked and made a ton of sense already.
It only seems right that other casted media would behave the same when Google Home needs to hear you despite loud playback volumes.
While not some ground-breaking new feature, little adjustments to the overall usability make the experience feel more polished, thoughtful and natural: all things needed if voice assistants are to really become a part of our normal, day-to-day routines.
