Google Home Mini - A great little tts speaker

Inability to turn off a sound that annoys me is a fault in my eyes.

I actually like the sound since it helps draw attention to the fact that an announcement is about to occur. It may be that I am just sooooo happy not to get the "incoming broadcast from" prefix from the broadcast method.

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I’m getting everyone’s point of view that they like the sound and the reasons. Appreciate and respect the different points of view.

But I don’t like it, and have no choice other than to not use it. Just that simple.

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:joy: Stephan. This library of gifs you have, just waiting for a post.

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Lol. I get joy out of @Cobra's pain sometimes :laughing:

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Agreed, although, I'm wondering if it serves a purpose on a technical side too? It could be a by product of some type of wake command since it only does it when the chromecast function isn't active?

I think it might be something closer to @JasonJoelOld's preference. Having a speaker suddenly announce something at a high volume may be a bit offputting to some. Google may have just been adding this as a more subtle way of letting users know an incoming message was about to start....and also as a way to distinguish a voice response from an "outside" activated message.

But then why would it be something that can be turned on or off on dedicated Chromcast devices, it’s a sound. With respect, I have a hard time believing they could not change the firmware to make it optional.

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As I stepped away to make my morning cup of coffee I had the same thought. If we had the option to shut it off it would be a plus for sure. I only have one "true" chromecast audio and I'm not using it for announcements because it's connected to a powered speaker that has it's own "sleep" method that causes it to miss the beginning of messages even with the "boink" prefix.

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I have an Echo in the bathroom. We had guests over and I had forgotten to lower the volume after listening to a podcast while showering.

I opened the back door to let the dog out. It said “BACK DOOR!” loudly while she was on the crapper. Small bathroom so the echo is almost in your face. We laughed about it when she commented on it later. Comic relief aside, it really isn’t a problem for it to suddenly speak IMHO. No more startling than a sudden loud tone and then speech would have been.

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Although I see the need to make the tone optional, my family likes the tone. When testing the new app, they even commented, 'where's that thing at the beginning so I will listen?' lol

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I see both sides of the issue. All I can say is I hope the sound doesn't go away. Feel free to submit a request to Google, though.

No amount of us pontificating on here is going to change Google's mind. :slight_smile:

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This is really cool - my wife won a Google Home mini at work and I connected it to Hubitat to help with lights here and there. Nothing super exciting so far, but now I'm going to have some fun. I setup a TTS message to announce when I'm approaching home, its going to scare the crap out of her tonight :joy:

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I have to send a refresh command before I can get "Nicole" (my Google Home Mini) to say anything or to even make the "Boing" noise. Like others have said IF there's already a connection between HE and GHM then she won't start with a "Boing" otherwise it will. :frowning:
I've also turned everything off such as Mic and any external connections as I wanted the GHM just for TTS.
I hoping that as the Chromecast App improves, so will "Nicole" (the GHM)

They are soon that's what I'm waiting for then will get the smart speaker bean cans in each bedroom!

Soon seems to be a relative word for Sonos. This has been promised for over a year.

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Is there a way to force the female voice on TTS? We get the female voice with regular microphone responses but not TTS

TTS is Amazon Poly through Hubitat. The GH is whatever voice you have configured in Google Assistant. To change the settings in Hubitat, go to the settings page, Hub Details. You can select a different voice there.

Thanks, got it