Google Home can now understand 3 queries at a time, or so Google says

At Google I/O 2018, Google promised improvements to Google Assistant (and thus, Google Home hardware) that would enable users to get more done using more natural ways of speaking.

Fulfilling one of those promises, Google tweeted late yesterday that you can now perform up to three queries at once when issuing commands to your Google Home, Google Home Mini, or Google Home Max. In a follow-up tweet, Google clarified that the new feature is only available in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia using the English language.

There’s just one problem: we haven’t been able to get it to work.

I tried to issue three commands at once to my Google Home Mini and was rebuffed every time. Google Assistant responds “I can only help with the second request.” Then, curiously, it completes the second request, but not the first or third.

As an example, I tried telling Google Home the following: “Hey Google, turn on the office lights, turn on the living room lights, and turn on the kitchen lights.” Google only turned on the living room lights, and the other two lights stayed off.

I then tried to be more succinct: “Hey Google, turn on the office lights, living room lights, and kitchen lights.” Once again, only the living room lights turned on.

Since Google’s tweet on the matter doesn’t go into specifics of how one should issue three commands to Google Home, I’m left to assume that the rollout simply hasn’t made its way to me yet.

However, via Android Police, we did discover that you can speak more naturally to your Google Home hardware to get two things done at once. Previously, to perform two tasks you had to spell it all out, such as: “Hey Google, turn off the living room lights and turn off the office lights.” Now, you can simply say, “Hey Google, turn off the lights in the living room and the office.”

Curiously, this new feature worked for me (and for Android Police) even though Google hasn’t made an announcement on the matter. In fact, its support page still says this feature isn’t supported yet.

So, in brief, we have Google announcing a new feature that doesn’t work, and we have a new feature that works which Google hasn’t advertised. Go figure.

Let us know in the comments if you can get either of these new Google Home tricks to work!

NEXT: Google Assistant routines — what are they and how to set them up?