Richard Goodwin 20/12/2017 - 12:24pm

I have a Pixel 2 XL and a Google Home and Google Assistant should be able to tell the difference between them

If you’re thoroughly embedded in the Google ecosystem, you will definitely know what I’m talking about when I say that running multiple devices with Google Assistant on them is super problematic.

Whenever I’m in my kitchen, and I want to use Google Home, my Pixel 2 XL can’t help but get in on the action as well. Usually, I request some music, only to have Spotify play out of Google Home and Google Music play from my Pixel 2 XL.

This is super annoying, as you can imagine, and I have no idea why Google has not got a fix for this crossover. I mean, I can’t be the only person in the world that has a Pixel 2 XL and a Google Home?

The obvious thing to do would be to turn off voice commands on my phone, but then I won’t be able to use it when driving, so that’s a no go. The other option, is to set different voice alerts for both devices, though, again, this isn’t something I should have to do myself.

Surely Google, in its infinite wisdom, should have seen this issue when it was designing Google Home and thought, hey, we better use a different command for this device, as there’ll be a crossover with any other devices running Assistant.

But no, Google Home and the Pixel 2 both use the same, “Okay, Google” command. And this means when you ask Google Home to do something, your Pixel handset wants to get in on the action as well.

Google is now rolling out a “Hey, Google” option for Assistant, which should, theoretically, fix this issue. I just don’t know why one of the smartest companies on the planet couldn’t have figured this out back when Google Home was on the drawing board!?

Still, Google Home can do a lot of cool things, as you’ll see inside our 20 Amazing Things Google Home Can Do feature, so while there are some issues with things like dual-activation, the device itself is still very compelling.

And the Google Home family is growing too; you now have the Google Home Mini and the Google Home Max. The latter of which is here to fix the complaints that claim the standard Google Home’s audio isn’t quite up to standard.