As an NVIDIA SHIELD TV owner, one of the frustrating things about the device is how it doesn't work great with Google Home/Google Assistant. Chromecast devices work really well with Google Home, but the SHIELD does not, despite the fact that it has "Chromecast built-in." For the longest time, it was not possible to start a Netflix video on the SHIELD with Google Home. Finally, that is changing along with some other welcomed features.

There was some integration before, but it was messy. You could say "turn on Living Room TV" and it would work, but Google Assistant would never actually respond. The lights would just keep blinking like it was thinking about it. Thankfully, things should be working better now with a deeper integration. Here are a few examples of commands you can say now.

Basic Commands“Turn on SHIELD”“Turn off SHIELD”“Open [name of app] on SHIELD”

Volume Control“Set volume to 50% on SHIELD”“Increase/decrease volume on SHIELD”“Mute/unmute volume on SHIELD”

Playback Features“Play [name of Netflix, HBO NOW, CBS, Viki, or Starz show] on SHIELD”“Play [name of song] on [name of app] on SHIELD”“Watch [name of channel] on YouTube TV on SHIELD”“Play [YouTube title] on YouTube on SHIELD”“Pause on SHIELD”“Play on SHIELD”

Photos“Show me my pictures from Egypt on SHIELD”“Show me my pictures from last weekend on SHIELD”

Just like before, Google Assistant is also on the SHIELD TV. So you can talk directly to the SHIELD to do these things as well. We're really glad to see NVIDIA and Google finally iron out these issues that have been annoying for a while. These new features are rolling out to SHIELD users this month. They also say you can restart your device to receive the update within a day.


Source: NVIDIA