You’ve probably been in this situation. You’re just about to fall asleep when you suddenly remember you have to turn off the lights. So you say, “Ok Google, turn off the lights”. It will, of course, respond “Ok, turning off lights”. It’s not always easy going back to the almost sleep state when you hear another voice in the room with you. Google has probably received some complaints about this and so now they’re changing this small but crucial thing into something a little less annoying.
When you give a command to your Google Assistant, whether it’s through a Google Home or Nest Hub device regarding turning off lights, you’ll now just hear an unobtrusive “chime” to acknowledge that it has received your command before actually executing the said command. It doesn’t involve just turning lights on and off though. It will also apply to other commands like increasing brightness, dimming lights, and “much more” although what that means is not specified.
The chime as answer will also work with switches and plugs that have been identified as lights. This means, if you have a desk lamp that’s connected to a smart plug, then you’ll be able to use this feature as long as the plug is called “desk lamp” and not just “desk”. If it’s the latter, since it’s not recognized as a light, it will still give you the full answer to acknowledge your command. So make sure that your connected light-related devices are identified in your Google Home app as lights.
This is a small change that will benefit probably just a small group of users but at least we know that Google is listening. And as more people are now using smart devices and connecting their appliances to Google Home and Nest Hub, it will become convenient for them as well.
Google has already started rolling the new feature out to users and the support page will be updated once it’s available for everyone already.
