Thanks to a firmware update, the Google Home smart speaker's skills as an entertainer can be used now to control certain Sony smart TVs and speakers.
Google Home On Sony Devices
According to CNET, you can stream now YouTube and Netflix videos on your Sony smart TV with your voice. The latest firmware update also enables you to control Sony's speakers with built-in Chromecast via your voice. The announcement was made on a blog post by Sony.
The Google Home is designed to use the Google Assistant to help you perform various tasks such as playing music, checking your calendar or controlling your smart home. In certain aspects, the Google Assistant is similar to Amazon's assistant Alexa and the Google Home is much like the Amazon Echo.
The Amazon Echo has been around for years, but the Google Home was just released last month. For this reason, the Home still lacks support from various brands and lags behind Amazon's Echo capabilities. However, because you can control Chromecast video and audio streamers with your voice, the Home has an advantage as an entertainer.
How Google Home Works With Sony Devices
The Home app also allows you to group multiple speakers together. You will be also able to include Sony's speakers in your groups, since they work now with the Google Assistant. You will be able to play a song on your Sony sound system with a single voice command, as well as on a Chromecast audio streamer plugged into the speaker built into the Google Home.
You will also be able now to stream Netflix and YouTube and content to Sony smart TVs that come with built-in Android TV, without the need to buy a separate Chromecast video streamer. However, it is unclear whether the integration adds the ability to turn your TV on or off by voice, as Sony doesn't specify anything about the feature. That kind of functionality would allow Google Home to actually replacing your remote, but you currently cannot do that with voice commands to your Chromecast.
According to Sony, among the tasks possible to execute via voice commands are included playing Youtube Music, skipping to the next track and turning up the volume. In order to start using voice commands on Google Home the user have to say: "Ok Google." The Multi-room group feature allows grouping supported Sony speakers and Google Home together in the Google Home app in order to play the same song on both Sony speakers and Google Home by using a mobile device or voice to execute the task.
With Google Home, you can play music on your connected Sony devices from popular music services by playlist, song, artist, genre, mood, album or activity. The Multi-room feature groups virtually any combination of Chromecast built-in Sony speakers, Chromecast Audio or Google Home together for synchronized music throughout the home. Among the Sony audio products with Chromecast built-in are included the HT-RT5 sound bars, model HT-NT5, HT-ST9, HT-XT2, HT-CT790, model STR-DN1060, STR-DN1070 and STR-DN860 receivers, model SRS-X99, SRS-ZR5, SRS-ZR7 and the SRS-HG1 wireless speakers.
