
Google Home now supports multiple users - stedaniels
https://blog.google/products/assistant/tomato-tomahto-google-home-now-supports-multiple-users/
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itchyjunk
"[...] we ask you to say the phrases "Ok Google" and "Hey Google" two times
each. Those phrases are then analyzed by a neural network, which can detect
certain characteristics of a person's voice."

So two phrases is all this needs. Good to know. Allowing only registered users
to use it might stop things like that burger king tv add that supposedly
triggered Home.

Does this mean my voice can be used to finger print me? All i need to use is
google voice function on my phone twice or maybe not even that if its
listening? Seems like it. Thought I don't know what this will mean. Gait,
sentimental and voice analysis seems kinda scary.

~~~
eco
Android has had Trusted Voice for a long time where you train it against your
voice by saying "OK Google" three times. The goal is to prevent unauthorized
users from accessing your information while the device is locked. It's far
from secure (Google says as much while you set it up). In my own experience my
wife can trigger mine occasionally as well as just random noise from the radio
or videos. I do get fewer false activations though so I guess it's better than
nothing.

Maybe this new neural network backed detection for Home will improve upon
Trusted Voice.

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agumonkey
It's so secure it seems I can only talk to it in a small quiet environment at
similar distance. In my car I get no reaction.

~~~
accountyaccount
Maybe it's hardware related? My Pixel hears me in the car with music on.

~~~
agumonkey
I can't say. I've never used it extensively, but I'm tempted to say that it
responded a bit better before I used the secure voice. I even rerecorded my
voice, no effect. alas

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fps
Would be great to see this functionality in the rest of google's products, but
I'm not optimistic. I'd love to seperate my kids' youtube and app usage from
my own on my Android TV. Why is feature parity, or hell, even coordinated
product direction, between platforms so difficult for google? Look at Google
Home, Chromecast, Android and Android TV - They work together so poorly you'd
think they were made by competing companies.

~~~
kcorbitt
I say this not as an excuse, but as an explanation: these things are very,
very hard to get right, and can be nearly impossible to retrofit onto existing
systems. When every single one of your dozens (or at Google's scale probably
hundreds) of interlocking backend systems designed at different periods by
hundreds of different engineers were built on the assumption that one primary
key == one account == one user, and you try to change those assumptions in
anything more than a superficial way, it's a guaranteed multi-year project
with a high chance of failure. Just look at the mess Microsoft is in with
_their_ accounts, also on the front page, as an example
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14159085](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14159085)).

And of course, once you're a certain size (that Google passed more than a
decade ago), you pretty much lose the opportunity to ever start over from
scratch on this sort of thing. You're dealing with legacy systems forever.

~~~
rajathagasthya
Can you expand on why one primary key == one account == one user doesn't hold
true when you want to provide support for multiple users? In case of Google
Home, each user has their own Google account and the device decides which
account to use based on who's asking. How is the one primary key == one
account == one user concept changing here?

~~~
MBCook
You're right you can use completely different keys to access completely
different account and it may not be that bad. But what happens when there's
shared resources and none of your systems were designed for that?

The idea that comes to the top of my head would be controlling lights and
appliances in the house. You don't have two completely different sets of
lights and appliances in one house just because there are two users, it's the
same set of things for both. But that means now you have to know that both
users are sharing X while some other thing (such as a Gmail calendar) may be
individual to each user.

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michaelmior
This is great, but what I'm waiting for is for Google Home to allow me to have
multiple accounts associated with a single user (Google Apps and Gmail).

~~~
tantalor
[https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2364824](https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2364824)

~~~
michaelmior
I don't really see how adding multiple profiles for different users to the
Chrome browser is related to adding multiple accounts for the same user on
Google Home. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

~~~
tantalor
Oh I'm sorry I completely misread your original comment!

~~~
michaelmior
No problem. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something :)

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jacksmith21006
If you look how Google has done multiple accounts versus Amazon you can see
the core difference between the two devices.

The Echo has a code you use for different accounts and the Google Home (GH)
just uses your voice.

The Echo is really more of a computer interface and has you do the work and
the GH is intelligent and far more human in how it does things.

Really love the voice authentication with the GH as it makes so many use cases
now possible.

For example, in our home I prefer some of my kids to be unable to lower the AC
thermostat. Now I can have some able to when they ask the GH in the kitchen
and others are not able to. But no awkward passcodes, etc.

The other is I am fine with guest able to do some things and then others I
only want "privileged" users to be able to do. With the Echo it was trivial
for people to learn the passcode. Now with the GH I say it and it will work
and they say it and it will not.

But everything is like this with the GH versus the Echo. A huge one is the
Echo has commands you memorize and the GH you just talk to it like a human.

So a little kid can use the GH as well as a grandma. Kind of like Google
Search. Same text box for a 5 year old as a rocket scientist as well as
grandma. Exactly how technology should be. Why on earth should we still have
to use passcodes?

Amazon needs to replace the foundation of the Echo to have intelligence if
they want to be competitive.

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buro9
So long as the accounts aren't Google Apps (GSuite) accounts.

Wherein, only a crippled experience is offered.

I'm so ready to purchase Google Home and a Pixel device, but because I only
have Google Apps accounts both are limited in what they can do.

It's great saying "it's the software and not the hardware", but when the
software is crippled for a set of users, that's not great.

~~~
fps
I'm slowly moving off Google's platforms after over a decade as a GApps user
because of how nothing works for apps users anymore. Even if I could find a
gmail address that wouldn't get buried in spam and that I actually liked, I'd
have to re-buy all my electronic purchases because they can't be transferred.
I might as well re-buy them all on iOS. I've decided that the tight
integration google offers is actually an anti-feature if you find yourself
outside the "one true use-case."

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nirav72
Google needs to seriously add additional wake words or phrases. Ok Google or
Hey Google just sounds strange and just not natural. I have a GH and an echo.
Compared to the GH, I find it easier to trigger the echo by simply saying
"Alexa..." or "Computer, turn off lights". The "computer" wake word was
recently added to the echo.

~~~
fenwick67
"Computer" is great even if just for the old-school scifi vibe it gives.

~~~
taneq
For best effect, pick up your desktop computer's mouse and talk into it like a
microphone.

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vthallam
About time! This is a very important functionality for a device which is
supposed to be in the living room. Glad they added the support.

~~~
MBCook
I'm very surprised Amazon hasn't done this in the years the Echo has been out.

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sarnowski
Great, and now let me add my kids and have some parental control features
based on their voice recognition ;-)

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greggman
I read that and the headline in my mind is now "cameras no longer needed to
track people, can track people with mics only" ... "would you like some Gap
Jeans" you were over heard talking about jeans at your local coffee shop this
morning.

Maybe that's been possible longer. Maybe it doesn't mater with cameras
everywhere. It's just a sign of where we're going.

PS: Not complaining either. It's a useful feature

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d4l3k
I was really excited to try this out. Seems to be rather buggy though.

Every time I hit the "Multi-user is now available" button to set it up, a
white box opens and then immediately closes. Even tried linking it to my SO's
phone and configuring setting up multi-user from there, but it doesn't seem to
be an option on her phone yet. :/

~~~
shaklee3
For the life of me I couldn't find the option again once I set it up on my
phone. I just wanted to retrain the voice. However, when I did it from my
wife's phone, the option came up immediately.

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gnicholas
This is great. My toddler tried to make a Facetime call to my mother by saying
"hey Siri, make a Facetime call to my dad's mom". Siri did not understand,
since she assumes all voices are mine. I look forward to this feature becoming
standard on all virtual assistants.

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dingo_bat
So does it support reminders yet?

