Google Assistant Can Now Control Your Xbox

Cortana fans, take a deep breath, Microsoft is expanding where and how you can control your Xbox by releasing a new skill for Google Assistant. Available starting today, you can now let your Google device integrate with your Xbox.

While Google Assistant isn’t natively being installed on the Xbox, Microsoft has released a new plugin for Google’s virtual helper that will allow you to control your Xbox. You can tell the Google Assistant to launch a specific game, turn the Xbox on or off, launch apps, take screenshots, and a few other controls.

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If you want to add this functionality to your Google hardware, you will first need to join the program here. After that, you can find a list of all the commands here.

The addition of the Google Assistant support for Xbox is a net-positive for anyone who uses the Google hardware, for Cortana fans, it’s another painful realization that the Cortana is no longer the priority for Microsoft. With Alexa integration and now Google Assistant, there is little value to sticking with Cortana as a consumer unless you are a die-hard fan.

Seeing as Microsoft is now supporting Google Assistant on some of its software/hardware, it does make me wonder if we will ever see additional support in Windows 10? We have already seen an Alexa app for the desktop and if Microsoft is now supporting Google Assistant, the likelihood of it happening doesn’t seem too far fetched.

 

 

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Conversation 9 comments

  • stevem

    26 September, 2019 - 9:36 am

    <p>Being able to talk to and use multiple assistants sounds sensible to me. I've always preferred inclusive to exclusive. I still have the Kinect connected to my XBox One and back in the day the Xbox voice commands worked perfectly. Sadly with no hardware change and numerous software updates the Xbox with Kinect rarely responds to Hey Cortana and when it does I just get a display on the screen saying it's listening but it rarely hears my next command. Hopefully Google and Amazon will do a better job than Microsoft who seem to be working on making Cortana go slowly deaf. (Maybe Cortana is more human than I thought)</p>

    • T182

      26 September, 2019 - 10:46 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#471008">In reply to SteveM:</a></em></blockquote><p>For me, Cortana was starting to randomly pop up so often that i finally turned her off. </p>

  • coeus89

    26 September, 2019 - 9:38 am

    <p>Finally! I don't use Alexa much but having it use google assistant is amazing for me :)</p>

  • Sébastien Michel Harvey

    26 September, 2019 - 9:39 am

    <p>Works great, I love it, can turn on Xbox from wherever in my house now, by the time I get to the living room all my entertainment center is powered on and waiting for me! </p>

  • Omen_20

    26 September, 2019 - 12:06 pm

    <p>I hope this means Google Assistant will get Skype support soon. </p><p>It being limited to Duo has had me leaning towards getting an Echo. I would prefer to have a Google Home though.</p>

  • IanYates82

    Premium Member
    26 September, 2019 - 7:57 pm

    <p>Works pretty well.</p><p><br></p><p>The setup was a bit disjointed as the login page failed, and then it showed up in my Google Home list of devices with some cryptic name. Renaming that to xbox and assigning to a room was straightforward.</p><p><br></p><p>The pause/resume thing will be very handy, although we already do it with a Chromecast on the same TV. Still, sometimes we've started Youtube or Netflix from the xbox so the voice control will still be very useful. We'll see what other uses we can find.</p><p><br></p><p>From the Google group they suggest these commands…</p><p><br></p><ul><li>· “Hey Google, play Gears 5 on Xbox.”</li><li>· "Hey Google, turn on Xbox.”</li><li>· "Hey Google, turn off Xbox.”</li><li>· “Hey Google, launch YouTube on Xbox.”</li><li>· "Hey Google, pause on Xbox."</li><li>· "Hey Google, resume on Xbox."</li><li>· "Hey Google, volume up on Xbox.”</li><li>· “Hey Google, take a screenshot on Xbox.”</li></ul><p><br></p>

  • RonV42

    Premium Member
    27 September, 2019 - 9:56 am

    <p>"Hey Google, Play Gear 5 on Xbox"…</p><p><br></p><p>Reply: Wouldn't you rather play "Flappy Bird" on Staida, let me navigate you do the Stadia site.</p>

  • Stooks

    27 September, 2019 - 11:35 am

    <p>Yeah call me old fashion, but pushing the Xbox button on the controller and then selecting the game I want to start takes little to no effort and Google or Amazon collected no data.</p>

    • Lateef Alabi-Oki

      27 September, 2019 - 8:44 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#471369">In reply to Stooks:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Old fashion. Me I just tell Google to turn on my entertainment system and watch magic happen. Call me new fashion.</p>

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