Look and Talk makes Assistant conversations seamless
As the name suggests, Look and Talk lets you start conversations with your Nest Hub Max through Google Assistant simply by looking at it. You don’t need to summon the Assistant with the “Hey Google” or “Ok Google” wake word. The initial rollout had the feature disabled by default. While it’s unclear if that has changed with a wider rollout, you can always check for yourself and enable it anytime. Simply open the Google Home app and navigate to Settings > Google Assistant (under Features) > Face Match and turn on “Look and Talk” for your Nest Hub Max. Note that you will need to have a few more settings enabled for Look and Talk to work. Firstly, Camera sensing, Voice Match, and Face Match must be turned on, while the Nest Cam has to be turned off. You must also only select the English language for Google Assistant. Do not select a second language. Also, remember that Look and Talk will not work if your Nest Hub Max is playing a media, streaming a security camera, running a videoconferencing app (Duo, Meet, or Zoom), or is on Guest Mode. As far as the functioning goes, you have to be within five feet (1.5 meters) of your Nest Hub Max. Now, look at the camera for the device to recognize you and activate Google Assistant. Four dots will appear in the top left of the screen after activation. Continue looking at the camera while you talk. You can simply look away or tap on the screen if you want to cancel. Google says your video is processed on-device and isn’t sent to its servers.
The Nest Hub Max is getting Fuchsia OS
Google has also recently started seeding the Fuchsia OS update to the Nest Hub Max. It replaces the Linux-based Cast OS on the device. The new operating system doesn’t change the functionality of the device, nor does it bring major new features. Fuchsia OS should reach all eligible Nest Hub Max units over the next few months.
