As long as you don't have inflated expectations, this device does a pretty good job. But my initial problem was that I had higher expectations from Google :)
Expectation - I thought "Google Home" should be able to do a google search, like
OK google, do a google search for callisthenics
Sorry, I don't understand.
Reality - the device needs the prompt "tell me about", or "what is" - like
OK google, tell me about callisthenics.
According to wikipedia, callisthenics is.... (the first sentence only.)
OK google, what is a meteorite?
etc.
OK google, tell me more about callisthenics.
Sorry, I don't know how to help with that yet.
So, it can't read more than the first sentence.
It can tell jokes and do trivia etc, as described in various posts elsewhere.
OK google, tell me a joke.
(it tells a different one-liner every time.)
It needs an exact match for playing radio stations. For example,
OK google, play all india radio on tunein
Sorry, artists aren't available on tunein.
OK google, play All India Radio Classical on tunein
Sure, here's All India Radio Classical on tunein - (plays immediately).
Unfortunately, the music player in the API seems to buffer for quite a while, so currently, if we do
OK google, ask Radiosai to play bhajans
Playing radiosai bhajanstream - (plays after 100 seconds!)
The radiosai action is a work in progress, but currently, things like this work -
OK google, talk to Radiosai
Sairam, welcome to radiosai etc...
Search for Climate Change
It appears your current device does not have a screen, so here's the first result... etc
(plays immediately).
OK google, increase volume to 50%
works when radiosai or some other agent is not having context.
The touch interface on the device has recently been enabled. So, long touch on either side makes it pause or resume, a tap on the left side makes it reduce volume, and a tap on the right side makes it increase volume. This was not immediately obvious.
It can do more complicated things, but within a limited repertoire. For example,
OK google, tell me how to make idlis
(reads out ingredients and steps one by one, saying let me know when you want to continue, etc.)
OK google, continue
Nothing is playing at the moment
OK google, next ingredient
(reads out the next ingredient.)
OK google, next.
(reads out the next ingredient.)
OK google, next.
(Reads instructions one step at a time, we have to say next for the next step.)
OK google, previous step
(Reads the previous instruction)
(Asks if we want an alarm to be set for required time, etc.)
Apparently there's a 640 character limit for each interaction from the device. So, reading out a large page would need user interaction like the above series of steps for the recipe. Wikihow works in a similar way.
OK google, wikihow
Hi, how's it going?
Bake a cake.
Hi, how's it going?
Wiki how to bake a cake.
I didn't get that, can you tell me what you were looking to do one more time?
(never got it to work.)
It can play news, weather forecast etc. - OK google, how is my day?
And for those with home automation systems, it can be set up to put on lights, play something on the TV with Chromecast, and so on.
So, some people will like it, especially if they memorize the phrases needed for the device to do the required action. But others will be frustrated by it. Examples can be seen in the comments in the article below,
Edit - and here is a "comprehensive list which is periodically updated" from CNET, of all Google Home commands - https://www.cnet.com/how-to/google-home-complete-list-of-commands/
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