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Informative

Beware – Google Home can now make phone calls

Toast Made custom real wood wrapsIt’s been in the works for a while, but as of today Google is rolling out a feature to Google Home units that will allow you to call people in your contact lists (assuming it recognizes your voice).

Parents might want to be aware of this as while Google Home may not be able to access your contact list if it doesn’t recognize your voice, your kids still might be able to call saying “call the bouncy house.” Just keep an ear out for that.

At least it’ll do more for kids than teach them to properly say “Hey google… play the trolls soundtrack!”.

Unfortunately people you’re calling will probably not answer the phone because the phone number will be hidden, list as “unknown,” or no caller ID. Google is working on that, but for now just assume everyone who answers suspects you’re a telemarketer and announce who you are.

If you’ve got Google Voice or Project Fi supposedly you can finagle a way to show your name and number on caller ID. As with all things, I’m assuming somehow the Sprint integration probably was botched, overlooked, and otherwise will not work for people whose Google Voice number is their cell’s regular number.

So yeah, go ahead and get your “I can’t hear you the Google Home is on a shelf” excuse ready when someone asks you to bring your truck over and help them move.

[Google Blog] via ArsTechnica

Paul King

Paul King lives in Nashville Tennessee with his wife, two daughters and cats. He writes for Pocketables, theITBaby, and is an IT consultant along with doing tech support for a film production company.