Connected Home

Google Home: Configuring and Using It with a Logitech Harmony Hub Updated

Overview of Google Home & Logitech Harmony Hub

This is Part II of my Logitech Harmony Hub and Voice Control series, focusing on new Google Home integration. You can read Part I, the Logitech Harmony and Amazon Echo, here.

In early December, Google announced ‘Conversation Actions’ and ‘Direct Actions’ for Google Home. Today, Google announced interoperability between Google Home and Logitech Harmony, similar to Harmony’s integration with the Amazon Echo. Google Home also added support for the Anova sous vide cooker, August locks, Electrolux Frigidaire Gallery Cool Connect, First Alert thermostat, Geeni LED lights, Insignia Wi-Fi smart plug, Lifx Plus Wi-Fi smart bulb, Rachio smart sprinkler controller, TP-Link Wi-Fi LED, Vivint security platform, and Wink Hub.

Linking Google Home with Your Logitech Harmony Account

To enable Google Home voice control of your Logitech Harmony hub, you should do the following:

  1. Setup your Logitech Harmony Hub remote
  2. Setup your Google Home appliance
  3. Link your Logitech Harmony Hub remote to your Google Home appliance:
    • Ask Google, “Ok Google, ask Harmony to link my account”
    • Google Assistant will display a Link card in the Google Home app
    • Sign in using your Logitech Harmony account username and password
    • If you have more than one Harmony Hub, select the Hub with which Google Home will work (only one Harmony Hub can be used)
    • Approve the existing Harmony activities and add any desired nicknames by using “Add Friendly Name”
    • Select any favorite TV channels that you would like Harmony to direct tune
  4. Test your configuration by saying “Ok Google, ask Harmony to turn on the TV”.

Logitech has more configuration details here.

Commands

Powering Your Entertainment System On or Off

  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn on the TV.”
  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn on the entertainment center.”
  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn off the TV.”
  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn off the entertainment center.”
  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to set a sleep timer for 15 minutes.”

Powering a Specific Device On or Off

  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn on the Shield.”
  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn on the Blu-Ray.”
  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to turn on cable TV.”

(Switching between channels/apps only works on Roku, not Apple TV or Nvidia Shield)

Controlling Your Entertainment System’s Volume

  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to increase the volume.”
  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to decrease the volume.”
  • “Hey Google, ask Harmony to mute the volume.”

Room for Improvement

Multiple Hubs: you can only link your Google Home devices to a single Harmony Hub. In our home, we have many Harmony Hubs (one for each TV). But, we can only use Google Home / Google Assistant to control a single Harmony Hub. So, you should select the Harmony Hub in the room that you use most often.

No Proximity Awareness: voice commands are unnecessarily long and needlessly precise because you must specify the exact device, which usually includes the name of the room. Google and Logitech should collaborate to streamline voice commands by assuming that a command for a generic device (e.g. TV) is for the device in the same room as the microphone (e.g. both devices are in the family room). In the Google Home mobile app, there is an ability to map smart devices like Nest thermostats by room but entertainment devices cannot be mapped with the existing room configurator.

Amazon Advertisements: when Google Home hands off to Logitech Harmony’s voice assistant, it plays an ad for Amazon video services instead! Annoyingly, it also plays the same ad over and over. To test this, say “turn off the TV” or “turn the TV off”.

No Requests for Clarification and Mapping When Commands Aren’t Understood: neither Google nor Logitech handle unknown or partial commands well. For example, “Hey Google, ask Harmony…” is the proper command but “Hey Google, tell Harmony…” doesn’t work. Logitech requires similarly precise commands. You can create a Harmony activity nickname that is different from the formal Harmony activity name but even this isn’t flexible enough. For example, “switch input to…”, “turn off the TV”, “turn the TV off”, “turn everything off”, “turn all devices off” all do not work while “turn on…” and “turn off my TV” do. The whole point of voice control is that it should be effortless, not finicky.

No Awareness of Current TV/Entertainment System Status if Started Independently of Harmony: increasingly devices like sound bars require HDMI-CEC to be turned on, which turn on other HDMI devices. Similarly, casting music to devices can switch inputs and change system state independent of the Harmony Hub. When this occurs, the Harmony Hub is out of sync. Logitech needs to invest in new IP and Bluetooth capabilities to query connected devices and adjust its state engine.

Too Much Latency: Google Home hands off to Harmony, which takes time before you hear the announcement. And then the audible response itself is several seconds after the action has already started.

 



Updated on July 18th, 2017