DISH to work with the Google Assistant

[Scott Greczkowski]

DISH to work with the Google Assistant; bringing multi-language voice control to Hands-Free TV experience

-- Spanish-language support for DishLATINO customers
-- Available on Hopper, Joey and Wally set-top boxes paired with the Google Assistant

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Jan. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DISH today announced that its customers will have the ability to watch Hands-Free TVTM using the Google Assistant in the coming months. This marks the first time that DISH customers with a Hopper, Joey or Wally can use voice to control their TV in multiple languages, including English and Spanish.

"Throughout 2017, DISH took major strides toward building a suite of voice control options for our customers, including a new DISH voice remote," said Niraj Desai, DISH vice president of product management. "We're pleased to be working with the Google Assistant to offer our customers the ability to control Hopper's video experiences through the Assistant on speakers and phones."

Starting in the first half of this year, DISH customers with a broadband-connected Hopper DVR (all generations), Joey client (all models) or Wally single-tuner HD receiver can use the Google Assistant to control their TV when paired with the Assistant on speakers like Google Home, Android phones or iPhones.

The Google Assistant will be able to help you navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search TV content based on channel, title, actor and genre. Below are examples of commands you will be able to ask the Assistant:

? "Change channel to ESPN"

? "Tune to channel 130"

? "Go to the History Channel"

? "Find the Big Bang Theory"

? "Search for Game of Thrones"

? "Search for home improvement shows"

? "Show me Tom Hanks movies"

? "Play This is Us"

? "Skip forward"

? "Rewind 30 seconds"

? "Pause"

? "Resume"

In addition to the Google Assistant, DISH's voice control technology suite includes a recently released voice remote that ships at no extra cost with all Hopper DVRs.

 

[Cold Irons]

Good deal! My son got me a Google Home for Xmas, will be fun to try it out.

 

[budda]

Good deal! My son got me a Google Home for Xmas, will be fun to try it out.

What he said!

 

[syphix]

I was so hoping this would happen. Our family is so entrenched with Google Homes (2 minis and the original), that getting a Echo was never gonna happen. It may be gimmicky for the most part, but for searches it’ll be nice.

 

[ERSanders]

Another "SOON" from Dish... when is the question.

We had an Alexa so my wife could make voice calls for help if she needed it, BUT Alexa will (would?) only call another person with an Alexa, so we went to Google. The Google devices will call anyone on you phone list, except 911 (kinda stupid I think, but maybe to reduce "accidental kid" calls.

 

[lparsons21]

Another "SOON" from Dish... when is the question.

We had an Alexa so my wife could make voice calls for help if she needed it, BUT Alexa will (would?) only call another person with an Alexa, so we went to Google. The Google devices will call anyone on you phone list, except 911 (kinda stupid I think, but maybe to reduce "accidental kid" calls.

You can make calls to anyone with the Echos now. I call from either my echo or Google Home devices depending on where I'm at when I want to make a call and where I'm at in my house when doing it. Both work equally well for that IMO.

Currently the Echo devices have more 'things' they can do, primarily because they were first to market. Google is coming on strong though, not just with Home devices, but some devices coming from 3rd parties with Google Assistant built in.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I wish they would have announced this alongside a rollout of Dish Anywhere on other platforms besides Amazon. It would make sense to allow DA on Chromebox and Roku. Especially if they’re now interfacing with Google Assistant.

 

[lparsons21]

I wish they would have announced this alongside a rollout of Dish Anywhere on other platforms besides Amazon. It would make sense to allow DA on Chromebox and Roku. Especially if they’re now interfacing with Google Assistant.

What I've found so far is that 'interfacing' is a really broad term. Virtually everything that I've fiddled with using these smart speakers has worked to some extent, but in general it isn't quite as handy as it probably will be going forward. Right now IMO, it is more tinkering with tech for lots of those things.

So far I've installed LED dimmable dumb bulbs in the house and am utilizing Lutron Caseta Dimmers with hub to do voice control. And my Harmony Hub is also working with it, though not handy enough to actually use it regularly. And my Emerson Sensi wifi thermostat works with voice also.

 

[syphix]

It’s out! And works...ok. Searches using my Google Home on my Hopper result in the Home saying, “Hmmm...something went wrong. Try again in a few moments.”

Pause, play, and rewind/fast forward work fine (though I always have to to “on the Hopper” so it doesn’t get confused with my Googlecast which is connected to the same TV...kinda laborious). Just need to get searches working...

 

[ERSanders]

I get an error ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME . Tried it 3x without success. Does it need S/W beyond 517?

 

[syphix]

I get an error ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME . Tried it 3x without success. Does it need S/W beyond 517?

Perhaps. I have 518.

 

[ERSanders]

No longer a problem. It was a cell phone browser issue.

 

[peggy97850]

Happy to see it's available using my (almost free) Insignia voice speaker as well as Google Home. Since it can't make phone calls I wasn't sure it would work.

 

[ERSanders]

Also had a minor problem that Google seemed to marry with one of my lesser used Joeys, so I had to say (just once) "Hopper... then the specific command". That worked!

 

[bluegras]

DROP YOUR REMOTE! GOOGLE ASSISTANT NOW WORKS WITH DISH

https://www.dish.com/dig/news/drop-...-on-dish/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral
Google Assistant brings voice control to Dish Hoppers

 

[Darrell S]

DROP YOUR REMOTE! GOOGLE ASSISTANT NOW WORKS WITH DISH

https://www.dish.com/dig/news/drop-...-on-dish/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral
Google Assistant brings voice control to Dish Hoppers

Why don't you ask it to add HD channels?

 

[jerryez]

Soon! Hope it works better than with Alexa!

 

[charlesrshell]

Well, what is everyone thinking about this Google Assistant? Is it better than Alexa? Does the Google Home Mini do everything the Alexa does? Is the Google Home Mini the way to go or is the Google Home the best way? Does using your smart phone work pretty good with Google Assistant? Thanks for any help.

 

[bacchus101]

Soon! Hope it works better than with Alexa!

I'm already back to using Alexa.

First of all, it breaks Smartthings (harmony) functionality so I can no longer turn on/off TVs or control volume. Half the time it says it can't do that or asks me what device (and I tell it to no avail). The rest of the time, it just starts playing something on the home itself: "Hey Google, change channel to ESPN" - and it starts playing ESPN radio on the home closest to me.

That said, it might be useful if all you have is one hopper and one home device.

They neglected to have any configurable settings in the home app (dish interface) itself to chose defaults (duh!) so when you say "Change channel to ESPN" and the master bedroom home hears that phrase, it should know to tune to the master bedroom default device (it doesn't) not the living room hopper or the guest room joey...


They should have the bugs worked out in 18-36 months.

 

[charlesrshell]

I'm already back to using Alexa.

First of all, it breaks Smartthings (harmony) functionality so I can no longer turn on/off TVs or control volume. Half the time it says it can't do that or asks me what device (and I tell it to no avail). The rest of the time, it just starts playing something on the home itself: "Hey Google, change channel to ESPN" - and it starts playing ESPN radio on the home closest to me.

That said, it might be useful if all you have is one hopper and one home device.

They neglected to have any configurable settings in the home app (dish interface) itself to chose defaults (duh!) so when you say "Change channel to ESPN" and the master bedroom home hears that phrase, it knows to tune to the master bedroom default device (it doesn't) not the living room hopper or the guest room joey...

They should have the bugs worked out in 18-36 months.

Thanks. Can more than one smartphone be paired to the same Hopper/Google Assistant?