Tag Archives: Google Home

A new way for podcasters to understand and grow their audiences

Whether taking a quick walk, diving into an ambitious cooking project or driving in the car, people are listening to podcasts in more places. We redesigned Google Podcasts with this in mind, making it easier to discover and listen to podcasts wherever people are listening. 

Today we’re introducing Google Podcasts Manager, a new tool to help podcasters gain insight into the evolving habits of podcast listeners so they can better understand their audiences and reach them across Google products.


With Podcasts Manager, you can make sure your show is available to millions of Google Podcasts listeners through a simple verification process. Within the tool you can access metrics to understand how engagement with your show evolves over time and see activity for recent episodes. This includes retention analytics which help you better understand where people tune in—and when they drop off—along with listening duration, minutes played and more. And you can export the data and plug it into your own analysis tools if you prefer.
Copy of 925x512_podcasts_episodes_a.png

Audience retention dashboard

Podcasts Manager also provides anonymized device analytics that show what percentage of your audience listens on phones, tablets, desktop computers and smart speakers. This data can help podcasters better understand and respond to changing listening behavior. For example, you might discover that the majority of your listeners access your show on a smart speaker. This might mean you add shorter form content for listening on-the-go, or develop more family-friendly options for consumption in an open space.

Copy of 925x512_podcasts_device_brekdown_a (1).png

Device breakdown dashboard

We’ll continue to build on these features to help audio publishers grow sustainable businesses, connect with listeners and create podcasts people love.

A new way for podcasters to understand and grow their audiences

Whether taking a quick walk, diving into an ambitious cooking project or driving in the car, people are listening to podcasts in more places. We redesigned Google Podcasts with this in mind, making it easier to discover and listen to podcasts wherever people are listening. 

Today we’re introducing Google Podcasts Manager, a new tool to help podcasters gain insight into the evolving habits of podcast listeners so they can better understand their audiences and reach them across Google products.


With Podcasts Manager, you can make sure your show is available to millions of Google Podcasts listeners through a simple verification process. Within the tool you can access metrics to understand how engagement with your show evolves over time and see activity for recent episodes. This includes retention analytics which help you better understand where people tune in—and when they drop off—along with listening duration, minutes played and more. And you can export the data and plug it into your own analysis tools if you prefer.
Copy of 925x512_podcasts_episodes_a.png

Audience retention dashboard

Podcasts Manager also provides anonymized device analytics that show what percentage of your audience listens on phones, tablets, desktop computers and smart speakers. This data can help podcasters better understand and respond to changing listening behavior. For example, you might discover that the majority of your listeners access your show on a smart speaker. This might mean you add shorter form content for listening on-the-go, or develop more family-friendly options for consumption in an open space.

Copy of 925x512_podcasts_device_brekdown_a (1).png

Device breakdown dashboard

We’ll continue to build on these features to help audio publishers grow sustainable businesses, connect with listeners and create podcasts people love.

Source: Search


How one Googler is raising awareness around ALS

When you’re young, life is filled with a chorus of well-intentioned advice: “Work hard.” “Be brave.” “Follow your dreams.” 

And of course: “Be the hero of your own life.” 

When it comes to “heroes” I’ve found that even if you’re really lucky, then the person staring back at you in the mirror won’t make your top five. Heroes are those unexpected people who step into your life long enough to teach you something about grace, courage and persistence. 

For me, one of those people is a woman named Stacy Title.

A personal connection to ALS

I met Stacy after competing with her husband, Jonathan Penner, on season 13 of Survivor: Cook Islands. My friendship with Jonathan is one of the things I treasure most from that experience. In time, I befriended his brilliant and lovely wife, Stacy, and their two children, Cooper and Ava.  

Stacy and Yul.jpg

Yul with Stacy in 2019

Two years ago, Stacy was diagnosed with familial ALS, a devastating neurodegenerative disease that slowly robs a person of all muscle control. Her thoughts immediately turned to her children. Beyond the diagnosis, the real horror was knowing that each of her children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting the genetic abnormality that causes this disease. She was determined to fight and somehow spare her children this diagnosis—but she didn’t know how. No one did. 

As Stacy’s disease progressed, ALS took away her ability to move her arms, hug her children, and even to speak. She lost the ability to communicate except by using her eyes to slowly spell out words using eye-tracking technology, which would then be read out loud by an electronic voice.

ALS left my friend's mind intact but otherwise cut her off from the world, and it left a family cut off from a wife and mother—so I asked her if we could try something. 

Stacy, Jonathan and their children Cooper and Ava in San Diego in 2006. Jonathan had recently returned from competing with Yul on Survivor: Cook Islands

Stacy, Jonathan and their children Cooper and Ava in San Diego in 2006. Jonathan had recently returned from competing with Yul on Survivor: Cook Islands.

A newfound sense of autonomy and connectedness

Last spring, I went to Stacy’s home and set her up with a Nest Hub Max smart display and several Google Home Mini speakers. I also got her a subscription for Google Play Music and a gift card for Google Play Books. I didn’t know if any of these would actually be helpful to her. But as it turned out, they changed her life.  

Google Assistant on the Nest Hub Max understood Stacy’s electronic voice perfectly. Suddenly she could play her favorite songs, listen to the news or audiobooks, watch YouTube videos, and ask questions whenever she wanted. Using Google Assistant’s broadcast feature, she could call people in other rooms for help through the Mini speakers. Jonathan could also check on her easily from his phone using the Hub Max’s built-in Nest Cam. 

Jonathan and Stacy with their Nest Hub Max in 2020

Jonathan with Stacy in 2020

Jonathan, Cooper and Ava then installed Google Photos on their phones so that any photos they took were automatically uploaded to a live album and streamed to Stacy’s Hub Max. For the first time in over a year, she could keep up with what her kids were doing, and be present in their lives outside the confines of her bed or chair.

While far from a cure, these products brought back a sense of autonomy, connectedness, and enjoyment she had lost, not because of the tools themselves, but because of the moments these tools allowed her to experience. This was when it really hit home for me how much technology can help people.

Today, Stacy knows it’s only a matter of time. She endures the discomforting intervention of a ventilator and other systems, and lives for one urgent purpose: raising awareness of ALS so that her children will have a chance of escaping her fate.  

Raising awareness for ALS with Survivor

Last year, I received an unexpected invitation to compete in Survivor: Winners at War. This 40th season, now running on CBS, brings together past winners for the ultimate showdown. Though I was initially unsure about returning, I saw it as an opportunity to bring attention to Stacy’s story, and raise funds in a way that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. So I returned to the South Pacific, and pledged that whatever money I earn from the show will go toward supporting ALS research and other ALS charities.

I’m grateful to Google for building technology that helps people everywhere. I’m grateful to CBS for sharing Stacy’s story and creating a fundraising page to support her family and thousands of other families in need. And most of all, I’m grateful to Stacy for showing me how someone can face the impossible each day with more bravery, persistence, and love than I could ever imagine. Because she reminded me that what’s important isn’t finding hope for her. It’s finding hope for Ava and Cooper and countless others who can still be spared this terrible disease. 

In the end, I think that’s the best way we can honor the people who inspire us: by helping build the future they imagined. I hope we can build Stacy’s future together.


Our hardware sustainability commitments

Most of us can’t get through the day without a phone, tablet, computer or smart speaker. My team at Google understands this well—we’ve been making consumer hardware (like Pixel phones and Google Home Minis) for just over three years now. But building these devices and getting them into the hands of our customers takes a lot of resources, and disposing of our old electronics can create significant waste. 


My job is to integrate sustainability into our products, operations and communities—making it not just an aspect of how we do business, but the centerpiece of it. It’s an ongoing endeavor that involves designing in sustainability from the start and embedding it into the entire product development process and across our operations, all while creating the products our customers want. This is how we will achieve our ambition to leave people, the planet, and our communities better than we found them. 


To help us get a step closer to reaching our goals, we’re sharing a set of hardware and services sustainability commitments: 

  • By 2020, 100 percent of all shipments going to or from customers will be carbon neutral 
  • Starting in 2022, 100 percent of Made by Google products will include recycled materials with a drive to maximize recycled content wherever possible.
  • And we will make technology that puts people first and expands access to the benefits of technology. 

These commitments will build on the foundation and progress we’ve already made. In 2018, we began publishing our product environmental reports, which help everyone understand exactly what our products are made of, how they’re built and how they get shipped to you. And from 2017 to 2018, our carbon emissions for product shipments decreased by 40 percent. we’ve also launched our Power Project, which will bring one million energy- and money-saving Nest thermostats to families in need by 2023, and built much of our Nest product portfolio with post-consumer recycled plastic.  


We’re always working to do more, faster. But today we’re laying the foundation for what we believe will be a way of doing business that commits to building better products better. 

Make your smart home more accessible with new tutorials

I’m legally blind, so from the moment I pop out of bed each morning, I use technology to help me go about my day. When I wake up, I ask my Google Assistant for my custom-made morning Routine which turns on my lights, reads my calendar and plays the news. I use other products as well, like screen readers and a refreshable braille display, to help me be as productive as possible.

I bring my understanding of what it's like to have a disability to work with me, where I lead accessibility for Google Search, Google News and the Google Assistant. I work with cross-functional teams to help fulfill Google’s mission of building products for everyone—including those of us in the disabled community.

The Assistant can be particularly useful for helping people with disabilities get things done. So today, Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we’re releasing a series of how-to videos with visual and audible directions, designed to help the accessibility community set up and get the most out of their Assistant-enabled smart devices.

You can find step-by-step tutorials to learn how to interact with your Assistant, from setting up your Assistant-enabled device to using your voice to control your home appliances, at our YouTube playlist which we’ll continue to update throughout the year.

Intro to Assistant Accessibility Videos

This playlist came out of conversations within the team about how we can use our products to make life a little easier. Many of us have some form of disability, or have a friend, co-worker or family member who does. For example, Stephanie Wilson, an engineer on the Google Home team, helped set up her parents’ smart home after her dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

In addition to our own teammates, we're always listening to suggestions from the broader community on how we can make our products more accessible. Last week at I/O, we showed how we’re making the Google Assistant more accessible, using AI to improve products for people with a speech impairment, and added Live Caption in Android Q to give the Deaf community automatic captions for media that’s playing audio on your phone. All these changes were made after receiving feedback from people like you.

Head over to our Accessibility website to learn more, and if you have questions or feedback on accessibility within Google products, please share your feedback with us via our dedicated Disability Support team.

How DIVA makes Google Assistant more accessible

My 21 year old brother Giovanni loves to listen to music and movies. But because he was born with congenital cataracts, Down syndrome and West syndrome, he is non-verbal. This means he relies on our parents and friends to start or stop music or a movie.  

Over the years, Giovanni has used everything from DVDs to tablets to YouTube to Chromecast to fill his entertainment needs. But as new voice-driven technologies started to emerge, they also came with a different set of challenges that required him to be able to use his voice or a touchscreen. That’s when I decided to find a way to let my brother control access to his music and movies on voice-driven devices without any help. It was a way for me to give him some independence and autonomy.

Working alongside my colleagues in the Milan Google office, I set up Project DIVA, which stands for DIVersely Assisted. The goal was to create a way to let people like Giovanni trigger commands to the Google Assistant without using their voice. We looked at many different scenarios and methodologies that people could use to trigger commands, like pressing a big button with their chin or their foot, or with a bite.  For several months we brainstormed different approaches and presented them at different accessibility and tech events to get feedback.

We had a bunch of ideas on paper that looked promising. But in order to turn those ideas into something real, we took part in an Alphabet-wide accessibility innovation challenge and built a prototype which went on to win the competition. We identified that many assistive buttons available on the market come with a 3.5mm jack, which is the kind many people have on their wired headphones. For our prototype, we created a box to connect those buttons and convert the signal coming from the button to a command sent to the Google Assistant.

Project DIVA diagram

To move from a prototype to reality, we started working with the team behind Google Assistant Connect, and today we are announcing DIVA at Google I/O 2019.


The real test, however, was giving this to Giovanni to try out. By touching the button with his hand, the signal is converted into a command sent to the Assistant. Now he can listen to music on the same devices and services our family and all his friends use,  and his smile tells the best story.


Getting this to work for Giovanni was just the start for Project DIVA. We started with single-purpose buttons, but this could be extended to more flexible and configurable scenarios. Now, we are investigating attaching RFID tags to objects and associating a command to each tag. That way, a person might have a cartoon puppet trigger a cartoon on the TV, or a physical CD trigger the music on their speaker.


Learn more about the idea behind the DIVA project at our publication site, and learn how to build your own device at our technical site.


More help is on the way with Nest Hub Max

Today we’re bringing the Home products under the Nest brand. It’s a natural next step since our products work together to help you stay informed, feel more comfortable and safe, keep an eye on home when you’re away, and connect to friends and family. Now we’re taking our first step on a journey to create a more helpful home.


We’re introducing Nest Hub Max, the first product from our newly-formed team. Nest Hub Max has all the things you love about Nest Hub (formerly Google Home Hub). It has a digital photo frame powered by Google Photos and the home view dashboard, which gives you full control of your connected device. With our new display, you'll get a bigger 10-inch HD screen and a smart camera that helps you keep an eye on your home and keep in touch with family and friends. Nest Hub Max is specifically designed for those shared places in the home where your family and friends gather.

Nest Hub Max

The new kitchen TV

The big screen makes Nest Hub Max the kitchen TV you’ve always wanted. With a subscription, Hub Max can stream your favorite live shows and sports on YouTube TV. Tell it what you want to watch, or if you need help deciding, just ask the Assistant.  But unlike your kitchen TV, it can also teach you how to cook, play your music, and see who’s at the front door. And you’re getting full stereo sound, with a powerful rear-facing woofer.


Smart camera

Nest Hub Max has a Nest Cam to help you keep an eye on things at home: you can turn it on when you’re away and check on things right from the Nest App on your phone. Just like with your Nest Cam, it’s easy to see your event history, enable Home/Away Assist and get a notification if the camera detects motion, or doesn't recognize someone in your home.

The camera on Hub Max also helps you stay connected to your family and friends, and video calling is easy with Google Duo. The camera has a wide-angle lens, and it automatically adjusts to keep you centered in the frame. You can chat with loved ones on any iOS or Android device, or on a web browser. You can also use Duo to leave video messages for other members of your household.

And now when the volume’s up, instead of yelling to turn it down or pause the game, you can use Quick Gestures. Just look at the device and raise your hand, and Nest Hub Max will pause your media, thanks to the camera’s on-device gesture recognition technology.


Help just for you

Hub Max is designed to be used by multiple people in your home, and provide everyone with the help they need in a personalized way. With Nest Hub, we offered you the option to enable Voice Match, so the Assistant can recognize your voice and respond specifically to you. Today with Nest Hub Max, we’re extending your options for personalized help with a feature called Face Match. For each person in your family who chooses to turn it on, the Assistant guides you through the process of creating a face model, which is encrypted and stored on the device. Face Match's facial recognition is processed locally with on-device machine learning, so the camera data never leaves the device.

Whenever you walk in front of the camera, Nest Hub Max recognizes you and shows just your information, not anyone else’s. So in the morning, when you walk into the kitchen, the Assistant knows to greet you with your calendar, commuting details, the weather, and other information you need to start your day. And when you get home from work, Hub Max welcomes you home with reminders and messages that have been waiting for you. The Assistant offers personalized recommendations for music and TV shows, and you can even see who left you a video message.

Per our privacy commitments, there’s a green light on the front of Hub Max that indicates when the camera is streaming, and nothing is streamed or recorded unless you explicitly enable it. In addition, you have multiple controls to disable camera features like Nest Cam, including a hardware switch that lets you physically disable the microphone and camera.


When, where, and how much

Later this summer, Nest Hub Max will be available in the U.S. for $229 on the Google Store and at Best Buy, Target, Home Depot and more. It’ll also be available in the UK for £219 and in Australia for AUS$349.


We’re also bringing Nest Hub to 12 new countries—Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain and Sweden. And Nest Hub will now be available in the US for $129. Finally, we have updated pricing for our speakers, starting today Google Home is $99 and Google Home Max is $299.


We’re excited to make the helpful home more real for more people.


Six ways your Google Assistant can help you spruce up for spring


Spring is in the air, which also means it’s the season to freshen up your home. If you’re like me, cleaning your house doesn’t top your list of favorite things to do—but it still needs to get done. This year, get a little help from your Google Assistant on your phone, speaker or Smart Display—so you spend less time cleaning, and more time enjoying the outdoors.

As we bid adieu to winter layers and welcome longer, warmer days, here are six ways your Assistant can help with spring cleaning:

  1. You can’t get something done if you don’t remember to do it. Set a friendly reminder to tackle your cleaning projects around the house. Just say, “Hey Google, remind me to clean my closet” or “Hey Google, remind me to store my winter clothes.”

  2. Kickstart your cleaning session by setting up a custom routine so your Assistant automatically gets things done for you—like playing your cleaning playlist (because music makes even the most mundane chores better!), turning on your Whirlpool or Samsung dishwasher, and starting a load of laundry with Whirlpool, LG, GE or Samsung connected appliances. It’s easy to get this set up in your Assistant app for Android or iOS and link smart devices: Just add a custom command like “let’s start cleaning” and then add each action you want your Assistant to take (e.g. start the washer). Once complete, say, “Hey Google, let’s start cleaning,” and watch each action start at the same time.

  3. Who said cleaning was a one-person job? Broadcast a message via the Assistant on your phone or voice-activated speaker (like Google Home) to get some help from your family. Say, “Hey Google, broadcast ‘it’s time to clean!’” to rally your family. They can even reply back to let you know they’re on their way.

  4. Delegate tasks by telling your Assistant exactly which room to clean. If you have an iRobot i7 Roomba, simply say, “Hey Google, vacuum the kitchen” or “Hey Google, vacuum the living room.”

  5. In the middle of a cleaning session and almost out of cleaning supplies? Just ask the Assistant to get more. Give it a go by saying, “Hey Google, order more disinfecting wipes” or “Hey Google, order more paper towels.”

  6. With all of this cleaning, chances are you’ll have clothes or other household items that you want to give away. To find the nearest drop-off, just ask, “Hey Google, where is the nearest donation drop-off?”

While the Assistant can’t do all of the cleaning for you, it can help you streamline the process and make organizing your home more enjoyable.

Spring into healthy habits with help from Google Home

Spring is (finally) here. Not only am I using the warmer weather and longer days as a reason to clean out my closet, but I'm also taking the opportunity to clean up my routine and stick to my wellness goals. I'd like to read one book per week, cook more healthy recipes for my family and get at least seven hours of sleep per night… with a full time job and two toddlers. Life is a lot to manage, so I use my Google Home products to keep track of everything I want to accomplish.

Here are a few ways that your Google Assistant on Google Home devices can help with your wellness goals and put some spring in your step:

Get more sleep

Starting today, our Gentle Sleep & Wake feature lets you use any Google Home device to set a routine that gradually turns your Philips Hue smart lights on (wake) or off (sleep) over the course of 30 minutes, to mimic the sunrise or help you prepare for bed. This gradual change of light helps improve the quality of your sleep. Just say, “Hey Google,” then:

  • “Turn on Gentle Wake up" to have your daily morning alarms pair with gradual brightening. Make sure to enable Gentle Wake Up on the same Google Home device you’ll  set your alarms on.
  • "Wake up my lights." You can also say, “Hey Google, wake up my lights in the bedroom at 6:30 a.m.” This will start to gradually brighten your Philips Hue lights at the time that you set and can be set up to 24 hours in advance. 
  • "Sleep my lights." You can also say, “Hey Google, sleep the lights in the living room.” This will gradually start to dim your Philips Hue lights and can be programmed up to 24 hours in advance. 

The Gentle Sleep & Wake feature is available in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Singapore and India in English only. For other ways to wind down at the end of the day, you can also tune out noises from street traffic or construction next door by saying, “Hey Google, play white noise.”

Put your mind to bed

With Headspace on Google Home, you can try out a short meditation or a sleep exercise. Just say, "Hey Google, tell Headspace I'm ready for bed.” You can also say, “Hey Google, I want to meditate” to get recommendations like healing sounds, sleep sounds and more.

Cook healthy recipes

Cooking is easy with Google Home’s step-by-step recipes, and the convenience of a screen on Google Home Hub means that I can search for healthy family recipes and save them to “My Cookbook” for later. Use your voice to browse millions of recipes, get guided cooking instructions, set cooking timers and more.

Get some exercise

Use your Google Home to play your workout playlist, set alarms for working out or cast workout videos from YouTube to your TV with Google Home and Chromecast. If you’ve got a Google Home Hub, you can also watch workout videos right on the device. Try “Hey Google, show me barre workout videos” to get started.

Read more books

With Audiobooks on Google Play, you can buy an audiobook and listen to it on Google Home. Say, “Hey Google, read my book” to listen to your favorite audiobook hands-free with the Google Assistant. You can also use the Assistant on your phone to pick up where you left off. You can say, “Hey Google, stop playing in 20 minutes” to set a timer for bedtime reading each night, or multitask by listening to a book while tackling laundry or doing the dishes.


Hopefully your Google Home Hub, Mini or Max can help keep you healthy, happy and mindful for the remainder of 2019 and beyond.


Grown in the Netherlands, Google Tulip communicates with plants

Throughout time, humans have created more and more effective ways to communicate with each other. But technology hasn’t quite made it there with flowers, even though it’s no secret that members of the floral world do talk to one another. Scientists have found that plants use their roots to send signals to neighboring plants, as a means to maintain their security and wellbeing.

Decoding the language of plants and flowers has been a decades-long challenge. But that changes today. Thanks to great advancements in artificial intelligence, Google Home is now able to understand tulips, allowing translation between Tulipish and dozens of human languages.

Google Tulip, alongside a Google Home Hub on a couch

The ability to speak with tulips comes with great environmental and societal benefits. Tulips now have a way to indicate to humans that they’re in need of water, light or simply some more space. As their needs are expressed more clearly, they are able to live a happier and healthier life.   

Socially, it turns out that plants, and particularly tulips, are very chatty, and make for great friends. Tulips are excellent listeners and when listened to carefully, give sound advice.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google Tulip was largely developed and tested in the Netherlands, a country that produces 12.5 billion flowers a year. In particular, the Dutch are world renowned for their tulips, and even have a world-famous flower park, called Keukenhof, which provided the perfect testing ground.

Google is uniquely positioned to solve the challenge of speaking with plants. Building on an advancement called Neural Machine Translation, we worked with Wageningen University & Research to map tulip signals to human language. After two years of training, we were finally able to add Tulipish as a language to Google Home’s recently introduced Interpreter Mode.

Google Tulip is only available on April 1, 2019. Look for it on your Google Home device, simply by saying, “Hey Google, talk to my tulip.”