Google Home rolls out multiple user support

One of the most common complaints from owners of Google Home or Amazon Alexa devices since they arrived in the marketplace may well be “I need different users in my home to be able to talk to it.” Amazon has since publically stated they are working on it, but Google has come out to announce that it is implementing it to widen the use of the device.

Google wants Google Home to recognise users by voice – up to 6 users in fact. Since the smart home device first launched in the US back in May 2016, its lack of usability in multi-person homes (as only one person’s Google account could be logged in at a time) has been a key criticism the company has been working on addressing behind the scenes.

Gone are the days when only one user could access their playlists on Google Play Music, check their journey to work if another user’s Google account was logged in or accounts had to be switched manually. Google says as well as being able to differentiate up to six people by voice via their Google account, it can also provide them with their own personalised search results by pulling in information relevant to a particular user.

Google states it is able to do this via a quick voice training process during the product’s setup – i.e. users will have to say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google” two time each. The system then analyses each phrase by a neural network, allowing it to pick out defining characteristics each user’s voice. Any further recognition of voice is also done locally on the device, which Google insists can keep response time to the “milliseconds” (compared to sending them to the cloud for processing).

Each of the six users will also be able to set up individual preferences – including their place of work, music tastes – though will be unable to support different profiles (i.e. registering both a work and personal Google account).

Google began rolling out multi-user support in the US via an app update last week, with the UK next on the agenda within the next quarter.

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