Google Home solution met with new Google Assistant problem
I’ve got a bedtime playlist of music for my 7yo. I’ve got a light color and routine that gets her calmed and ready for bed. It’s all triggered by Google Assistant / Home and it’s continually been a fight to make it work.
tl;dr – out sick today… this is what I’ve got.
It started breaking back when Google Play Music transitioned to YouTube Music… suddenly the playlist was gone… that was a fun bit… had to rig something up for a while and eventually was able to get it working again.
Unfortunately the playlist only worked for adults on coming back… child accounts were unable to access YouTube Music unless they were over 13… rassafrassa more rigging and made a profile that only I could trigger. Oh well..
Change to YT music meant kids could access the playlist… occasionally. I never figured this one out but if they asked for a playlist it *might* work…
Then we had Household routines introduced… brilliant.. my 7yo could finally ask for the bedtime routine to execute. Worked like a charm for a couple of weeks and then, even though the routine has been named the same for years, Google Assistant stopped recognizing it for anyone but me.
I say “good night baby,” I get the routine. My 7yo says that she occasionally gets the routine, but generally gets Google saying “good night, sleep tight”. OK, so we rename it..
The text that’s worked for years “play <playlist name> on <device>” started saying “I don’t know how to help with that.” and broke.
I remove the device name, it’ll trigger on the one it’s on. I try and use the play music command there’re no options to play on the correct device, just the one that’s answering.
My 7yo was so happy when she was able to do that herself… she’s since learned anything that works today will be broken tomorrow…
One of the reasons I think I distrust companies that claim “AI” in everything is that a working solution changes to an un-working one for … reasons…
