The way I see it working, Google would primarily be used to recognize a voice and turn that into a search string. So it might be possible to not let them see the entire library, but there’s really no way you could prevent them from tracking what words they convert to text. If someone got into the habit of using Google for every Plex interaction (assuming it was good enough) it wouldn’t be long before Google knew what most of the library contained.
Personally I’d kind of like to see someone create a purely offline home assistant that would work with local home automation controllers and things like Plex without needing internet. Even if it took more time to train, I like the idea that it would keep on working if the internet went down.
This is a bit confusing. I assume you mean that Google can’t query a local server because it isn’t publicly facing the internet. And yet this is achievable with remote access and the Plex Web App.
I think the implication rbilodeau was making is that there’s a secret backroom deal with Amazon to NOT support Google Home. An exclusivity deal if you will.
I would hope that’s not the case, but it is irritating to have an Alexa integration but not Google Home.
From my understanding, although I could be wrong, that program intercepts the commands and runs it locally instead of through Google. That’s not the same as actual Google integration. That method requires each user to install this on their own system, and only on platforms that are supported. True Google integration would not require users setup something and will work with any Plex server.
Correct. There can only be 1 feed host. Only when the request is matched with the feed host, then the command is issued back to the provider to play that content.
Google designed their home integration for use with providers such as Netflix where they only need 1 host.
There are actually multiple projects where you can implement this yourself locally.
As @Pow4Life181 mentioned in his comment, FlexTV is one of those projects.
There’s also the project “Plex Assistant” for Home Assistant that does pretty much the same thing.
Although I’m not sure these projects specifically support offline usage, I do believe it is also possible to install a local Google Assistant that can be used without a connection to the google servers… you’ll need to do your own research for that though, and whether it’s possible to use it in combination with the above projects.
Plex Assistant is a Home Assistant component to allow Google Assistant, Home Assistant’s conversation integration, and more to cast Plex media to Google and Sonos devices, as well as Plex clients. You could use this component with anything that can make a service call to HA as well.
Example: "Hey Google, tell Plex to play The Walking Dead on the Downstairs TV."
Though I’d love to see this implemented officially Here’s to hoping Google plays nicely and makes some changes so Plex is actually capable of making it happen!!
How does this work with an in-home computer like a Hubitat hub controlling other devices in a smart home? Does hubitat.com act like a traffic cop taking all the commands sent from Google and passing them along to the appropriate hub?
Is there any reason Plex couldn’t do something similar?
Or, is it simply that the Plex clients are not designed to get push-data from the Plex server?
Here’s to hoping Google plays nicely and makes some changes so Plex is actually capable of making it happen!!