Google Home Calling: Everything You Need to Know

Now you know that Google Home calling is starting to roll out and should be on your units within a week if it isn’t already. As fun as it sounds, blasting Google Home calls to friends, family and random businesses after an evening of drinking, I’m sure you have some questions too. We’ll try to answer as many as we can with a little help from Google in this article.

Is Google Home Calling Coming?

It started again and Google hopes it will continue throughout the next week. You should call your Google Home with in a few days if it hasn’t already arrived.

Give Google Home a call

1. When Google Home is connected to a Google Home and WiFi, “Hey Google, call . say If the call is live on your devices, it should be active immediately and walk you through any additional steps needed. If it is not yet available, you will be told so.

2. To call businesses, you can be more vague and suggest something like “call the nearest liquor store,” call individual people in your contact list, ask Home to “re-dial,” or write down a full phone number.

3. If you’re calling someone who has multiple numbers listed, Google will read those numbers and ask what you’d like to call.

4. To end a call you can tap the top of Google Home or say, “Hey Google, hang up/stop/end call

5. Seriously it is. If your home is updated with the feature, you’ll receive calls asking people or businesses to call it.

Use Google Assistant while on Google Home calls

While in call, you can place people on hold and ask for the Google Assistant info. You do this by either pressing and holding the top of Google Home (the touch-sensitive part) or by asking for help with the “Hey, Google” command. During that Assistant session, the other person on the line can’t hear the Assistant nor can you hear the person on the other end. It’s very much a private Assistant session that ends once Google gets you your requested information.

Also, you can’t use all Google Assistant features on a call. Here’s the list of things that won’t work while Google Home is on a call:

Using Google Contacts with Google Home calls

Google Home uses your Google Contacts list to help it make calls to people. To sync it properly, you’ll need to access the Google Home app, make sure you’re on the same WiFi network as your Google Home units, then run through Menu>More settings>Devices and select your device. Need to access your Google contacts. For each device you want to give access to, you’ll then toggle the “private Results” option.

Additionally, to sync contacts everywhere, make sure you go to the Google app on your phone and follow through to Settings>Accounts & Privacy>Google Activity Controls>Device Information. If it’s not, turn it on.

Caller ID for recipients

When you make Google Home calls, they will show up as “Unknown” or “No Caller ID” on the other end to the recipient. Google says they’ll let you show your cell phone number later this year, but not right away because that option isn’t ready for prime time. However, if you are a Google Voice or Project Fi user, you can show your number from day 1.

To set it up, go to the Google Home app, go to Side Menu>More Settings>Calls. Once there, you’ll see the screen below and choose your google Voice or Project Fi number. If you prefer that your home calls remain unknown, there is also an “Unlisted” option. My guess is that when the option to show your mobile comes up, it will be found in this specific location.

Google Home calling multi-user access

Since Google Home supports multiple users by voice, Google Home also makes calls. Google will use each person’s contact list when calling people. Of course, this only works correctly if you have multiple users set up.

Frequently Ask Questions

Can you call 911?

Nope! At this time, 911 is not supported.

Can you accept incoming calls?

Nope! Google says that this option isn’t currently possible nor do they have details to share at this time. This also means you can’t block people, which makes sense since. they…can’t…call you anyway.

Does Google record your calls?

Nope! Google records the “OK Google” or “Hey Google” command each time it is said, but then stops recording once that has finished. So should you ask Google Home to call someone, it won’t continue recording as you talk – it’ll stop the minute you finish the “Hey Google, call Bob” line.