Voice control support (?)

I went to the naim nova page and found that there would be voice control through Google or Siri. How is that?
I suppose that what is controlled are the phone apps, but not the nova itself. Does anyone know?

Via a phone or tablet or via a home speaker (but not Alexa). So Apple HomePod or any Google Assistant enabled speaker like the Google Home or Google Nest Home.

1 Like

Well, I never managed to get it working! How do you do?
I have the device active in Google Home but the assistant is never able to play anything I do ask on it.

1 Like

I’m just saying what the feature means. Because anything that supports Google Assistant or Siri should work with any enabled Assistant or Siri control point. I don’t use voice assistants for anything - I hate that way of interacting. But it can be really useful/necessary for those with mobility issues.

There are a few users who have integrated it and documented problems related to getting it working with the latest firmware. I’m sure once the time shifts in favour of members in the UK, more will share how they actually set it up.

1 Like

I have Google Assistant working now. I did have issues - there’s a pretty long thread in this forum on my (and others’) struggles.

When you say you can’t get anything to play - may I ask from what source, e.g. an NAS, your phone, a streaming service?

1 Like

I don’t understand that it can be controlled by voice: the naim app? I don’t get answers. The nova does not have voice control. What appears on the page is misleading advertising. I have not yet been able to find that it can be controlled by voice specifically: it is not the hard one, it is not the soft one

It’s not a Naim specific function. Integration with Assistant is generic. You set it up on you phone to allow app control. And if you have a Google home speaker, also you can pair the phone with that. Voice commands are forwarded from the mic on you home speaker to your phone and from there to control individual apps via their API.

If you’ve set up voice control for anything else in the Google or Apple eco system, it should be the same, not Naim specific. Hence no Naim related manual on the topic.

That of course assumes it works smoothly - which not everything does at times.

2 Likes

Incidentally, for Android devices, there is an Assistant setup sections under “Apps” in the Andoid settings menu. I’d send a screenshot but my devices are all in Japanese.

Further to the post of @feeling_zen, I think most people who use the Google Assistant to manage products at home would buy a Google Smart Speaker (like the Nest Mini) which has a built in mic and sits permanently in a room waiting for you to say “Hey Google, turn on the living room lamp” or “Hey Google, what’s the temperature” or “Hey Google, play some jazz.”

I should note that to my knowledge, Google’s ability to play music is limited to certain services in the Cloud, including Spotify, TuneIn, and YouTube music. (There are others but to my knowledge not Tidal or Qobuz.) I don’t think you can get the Google Assistant to play specified tracks saved on your computer or NAS. I’m not even sure you can get the Google Assistant to play music saved on your iPhone - Apple may restrict that to Siri.

Edit - I just noticed this post was in the Hi-Fi forum. Lot’s of discussion of the Google Assistant in the Streaming forum.

3 Likes

I should add that if you simply say, “Hey Google, play some jazz,” the music will play on the Google speaker receiving the command. To get the music to play on your Nova, you would say, “Hey Google, play some jazz on my Nova” (or whatever name you’ve given to your Nova). And for Google to understand the command, you need to add the Nova to your Google Home. This may have been done in whole or in part during the original set-up of the Nova. In any event open the Google Home app (not Google Assistant) and under the devices tab, check to see if the Nova is listed. Make sure to see if it is listed as a linked device or if it is in a “room”. If it is a linked device but not in a room, you need to move it to one using the settings gear icon.

If the Nova does not appear at all, you need to add the device using the + icon. Just follow the steps. If Google reports that there is no device to add, in my experience, it means the device is somewhere in the Google Home already, so check again. (I’ve wasted a lot of time trying repeatedly to add a device, especially one that sits way at the bottom of the display in Google Home.)

After that the Google Assistant will know where to play the music.

1 Like

One more thing to give Google/YouTube Music its due. You are allowed to “upload” your library to the Cloud - up to 100,000 tracks the last time I checked. And this is free (also the last time I checked). Once uploaded, you can access your library through an app, the web, or using voice commands.

That’s the good news. The bad news - and I’m not 100% sure of this - is that the music is stored in a lossy format, and if YouTube Music has a version of the track it will substitute the version it has for that ultra-expensive audiophile version in your library.

1 Like

Whatever I’m asking Google assistant to do with the device registered is failing.
What are examples of things that you manage to get Google Home doing on your Naim device?

Hey Google, play WFUV on My Nova [WFUV is a radio station included in National Public Radio]
Hey Google, play Abbey Road from my library on My Nova [Abbey Road is an album I uploaded]
Hey Google, next track on My Nova
Hey Google, stop playing music on my Nova

I don’t have paying accounts with Spotify or YouTube Music, so I can’t tell Google to play specific songs from those sources.

What happens when you ask it to do something?

Also, just this afternoon, I noticed that the Google Assistant App and my Google Nest Smart Speaker can respond differently to a verbal command. In the instance where I discovered this the App was smarter.

Can I suggest two other things?

Open the Google Assistant App and type in the command. See how it responds. Then try speaking it into mic on your phone.

If you have a Google Nest Hub with a display, you can go into Home Control and try to play music that way - just as a test.

1 Like