My bizarre collection of niche apps, being just that I just don't have the spare time honestly...
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Excuses... always excuses...
I think I’ve mentioned time management before.
LOL
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lol had to Google that.
Mine started talking to the Google Assistants after we switched from Alexa.
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I got that "free" Google Home Mini (GHM) via the Spotify deal and then Chromecast was released and I took it out of it's box and got it registered. Switched off it's mic and I use it ONLY for TTS. The Echo's continue to do what the family wants. I've had an Aeon Doorbell to make canned announcements for years. It did it so poorly it's been disabled for most of the year. It stutters and cuts off. Chromecast to GHM is the answer I didn't know I was looking for.
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Exactly!
Just be sure to make a DHCP Reservation for your Google Home devices to prevent their IP address from changing. It was easy to fix when it happened to me (reran discovery process), but best to prevent it from happening in the first place. 
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Just doing that now.
My other 3 were delivered this morning.. playing now
I was thinking about that too but GH doesn’t support Sonos nor does it support Apple Music. Two must haves for our family. 
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Luckily for me it wouldn't matter. My wife never adapted to using Alexa to launch playlists using the Alexa/Sonos integration. The commands were too specific and I had too many speakers. She always got confused with how to start and stop playback. That's why I ended up simplifying everything with virtual/physical buttons to launch everything. This of course needs predefined playlists but not too big a deal for my family. I also only play music through my sonos speakers. None of the other options ever sounded loud or rich enough for us.
Because of this, Alexa or google assistant, it doesn't matter....as long as they can flip a virtual switch, I'm good.
When/if google and sonos ever release their integration, things should get really interesting. The ability to truly customize actions and voice commands in google should allow us to be a bit more imaginative with routines.
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OK... I'm being extravagant now..
I couldn't resist ordering a couple more just now for different rooms
These things really are brilliant for TTS
My little app seems to be working well...
I have some enabled by motion, some enabled during specific times, and one enabled/disabled by switch.
(using the 3 options I have in my app at the moment)
Seems to be working really well so far
Andy
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A question for you guys who have had these for a while..
One thing I've noticed.
If the device has been dormant for a while it plays a couple of notes before speaking..
If it is still awake then it doesn't
Any way to disable this?
It's kinda freaking one of the dogs out
Andy
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Normal.
I believe I read somewhere that there was a plan to enable led/sounds customization coming on near future. Now being Google I take this with a grain of salt.
No way to disable that. Each time a new cast connection is made it makes the connection sound to let you know something new has connected to the speaker.
Any time a device connects to GH to cast to it, it makes the "boink" sound, that's what you are hearing. If the device is already connected and just plays something, no sound. I'm assuming that Hubitat hub disconnects after some period of inactivity, and has to reconnect to play TTS, hence the sound after it's been dormant for awhile.
No way to disable as of today.
For your use, since you don't use the assistant, I suppose you could try making a routine to play a blank sound to it on a schedule to try and keep the chromecast connection open at all times though.
Yeah I have a few Sonos Ones which have Alexa built in. Hence my dilemma. And I use an awesome app to flip switches to turn on canned playlists too. Family favorite actually. The author of that code is pretty brilliant. 
Strongly recommend against this.
Until recently GH/CH were generating a lot of background traffic on a wifi network. This was done through broadcast just to keep the devices alive. This has been now fixed by Google as WIFI performance was severely impacted.
Right but that BUG was fixed, so they don't do that any more... I would say try it, and monitor your wifi traffic...
It's not the end of the world.. the dog will have to get used to it
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You can use it to train your dog
Like Ivan Pavlov 
