Google playing tricks?

[johnstonf]

re: Google Home Mini integration via my.isy.io portal...

I don't understand why commands "drop off" after working, even for weeks sometimes!

Just when i think i've got it, i then get "Sorry I don't know how to help with that yet" or
"My apologies, i don't understand" crap.

I try it a hundred times various ways, various voices, NADA, NOTHING.
I remove/re-add, NADA, NOTHING.

So freakin maddening!

Do they somehow figure out it's a 3rd party, then just pull support for that spoken command?

It feels like, "oh, it's UDI, so lets just cancel support for that spoken for that user, maybe they'll buy our crap.

Anyone else have these types of activities and/or suspicions?



 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2018 by johnstonf

[larryllix]

I have three GH minis and I will be getting rid of three of them. The ISY Portal stopped being able to maintain them but they still control my devices/programs with whatever was installed at the time of that capability quitting. However the GH minis always wanted to display AI capabilities that I never wanted and just confused my home automation attempts.
eg. "Turn on XXX lights." GH decides that I have lots of devices with "lights" in the name and responds with "OK turning on 23 lights"
eg."Turn on TV lights" GH decides I have a "TV lights" program as well as a "TV" so it turns on my TV or resets it, as well.
eg. "Turn on blue Bedroom lights". GH decides it finds "blue" in other devices/programs and  turns on the MB blue lights as well as my 15 Gathering lights blue.

IOW; I can't trust GH for HA. I suppose good AI means guessing when you don't quite understand and GH applies this to HA, incorrectly. Alexa never does this, but will do the "Which device did you want?" BS too.

Maybe GH is learning that their AI guessing doesn't work for HA, and is trying to re-ask more when some words are not over 99% clear?
It seems with google Home you can never use the same word twice anywhere. It's a complete fail so far.

Edited April 24, 2018 by larryllix

[johnstonf]

I've wiggled around most of the issues, and after about 10 variations...  now my lights are named ALPHA, BRAVO, DELTA... and they all respond great, individually (ya, my wife now needs to learn the phonetic alphabet lol, not a huge WF on that one...) and i have only the word light/lights on those that i want to come on/off/dimTo, when i say "DIM ALL LIGHTS TO 80%" and that all works (so far).. .the "so far" is the scary part... i don't KNOW that next time, one of the light names may stop working... so far so good.  Luckily, my portal still works to add/change.

But it's that 20% and the untrustworthyness that i hate.  I wish i could say "Google, you GOT IT... DON'T FREAKIN CHANGE IT!"

It COULD work... and it COULD WORK GREAT... but Google is such a massive and distant company...
Somehow they can do whatever they want, ignore customer needs, and still get away with it.

 

 

 

 

 

[larryllix]

The real truth is coming slowly. As much as I am going back to Alexa devices, my wife has turned to online library vocal books. For fun I asked Alexa to read the same book she has Meaf. library subscribed to and it started playing it, with pause, resume...the works! Awesome!

Now since then, every day, I get a spam email from their book reading service to join etc.. ignore, ignore, ignore.. After a week of the spam, I decide it is legit and decide to click on the unsubscribe link.
Oh no!. Maybe a phishing link? Only more subscribe to their club at $15 / month. Not happ'nen'!!! After another week of spam I tried a larger computer screen to dig around and get rid of this annoyance once and for all,  or complain to amazon about their self-enabled skills. 

At the entrance to the webpage it notified me about being a dirty Canuckistani, and gives me the choice of the .com or the .ca website. This time I chose the .com website where I now find subscription options to the account (that I don't have), with all the "send junk" settings enabled. Disabled everything I could find but I could not find a place to scramble my recorded email address. 

We''ll see what happens before the threats to amazon start next week. Cloud dependence? They all want it!  All I want is cloud charged batteries.

[MWareman]

All I want is cloud charged batteries.

While you cannot charge from clouds yet, you can already charge batteries from the sun...

https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Portable-Waterproof-Shockproof-Dustproof/dp/B00YOP7LV8/ref=zg_bs_2407762011_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=23G2Q9R04NPN8P6Q0618

[asbril]

10 hours ago, larryllix said:

I have three GH minis and I will be getting rid of three of them. The ISY Portal stopped being able to maintain them but they still control my devices/programs with whatever was installed at the time of that capability quitting. However the GH minis always wanted to display AI capabilities that I never wanted and just confused my home automation attempts.
eg. "Turn on XXX lights." GH decides that I have lots of devices with "lights" in the name and responds with "OK turning on 23 lights"
eg."Turn on TV lights" GH decides I have a "TV lights" program as well as a "TV" so it turns on my TV or resets it, as well.
eg. "Turn on blue Bedroom lights". GH decides it finds "blue" in other devices/programs and  turns on the MB blue lights as well as my 15 Gathering lights blue.

IOW; I can't trust GH for HA. I suppose good AI means guessing when you don't quite understand and GH applies this to HA, incorrectly. Alexa never does this, but will do the "Which device did you want?" BS too.

Maybe GH is learning that their AI guessing doesn't work for HA, and is trying to re-ask more when some words are not over 99% clear?
It seems with google Home you can never use the same word twice anywhere. It's a complete fail so far.

Lallyllix it must be your north western southern Ontario accent because GH works well with my blended European~Miami accent... To be truthful, I have an occasional issue with GH but it largely works as intended with my lights, fans and curtains, as well as my Harmony Hub and Nest. I also have Alexa  but prefer GH because its knowledge base is larger.

Edited April 24, 2018 by asbril