Look and Talk to Google on Nest Hub Max

With Look and Talk, simply look at your Google Nest Hub Max from nearby and your voice assistant will respond to your questions and commands. You do not need to say, "Hey Google."

Important: Look and Talk is available only on Nest Hub Max in English.

Look and Talk on Nest Hub Max | Google Assistant

Set up Look and Talk

Before you start

Look and Talk only works with certain settings enabled.

On your Nest Hub Max, turn on:

Tip: Face Match and Look and Talk work best when you put your Nest Hub Max in a place where it can easily recognize you.

Turn on Look and Talk

Important: These steps aren’t available on Google Pixel Tablet. You’ll need to follow these steps on another compatible mobile device.

If you use Gemini for Home voice assistant:

Open the Google Home app .
At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial.
Tap Home settings Gemini for Home voice assistant Face Match.
Tap the name of your home, then find the name of your Nest Hub Max.
Turn on Look and Talk.

If you use Google Assistant:

Important: To ensure Look and Talk will work, check that your Google Assistant's language settings show:

The selected language is English.
Only one language is selected.

Open the Google Home app .
At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial.
Tap Home settings Google Assistant Face Match.
Tap the name of your home, then find the name of your Nest Hub Max.
Turn on Look and Talk.

Use Look and Talk

Make sure you're within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of your Nest Hub Max. Look at the camera at the top of the screen. Continue to look at it while you talk to Google.

When your Nest Hub Max recognizes your face, 4 dots will appear at the top left of the screen. The dots may move, change color, and change shape. This lets you know:

What your voice assistant is doing.
When to talk to Google.
When to look away.

Tap your Nest Hub Max's screen to cancel a Look and Talk activation. If your voice assistant isn't processing what you said or responding to it, simply look away to cancel.

When you use Look and Talk, your Nest Hub Max won't play a start or end sound.

This feature isn’t available on your Nest Hub Max while:

Media is playing, such as music or videos.
Streaming a security camera.
Using Meet.
Guest Mode is on.

Understand what the dots mean

When the dots do this:	Voice assistant:	Tips:
	Has detected that you're within 5 feet (1.5 meters) and looking at the camera.	You can now ask a question or say a command without "Hey Google."
	Has detected that you’re speaking and is active to listen for your question or command.	Continue to look at the camera so your voice assistant knows to keep listening. If the dots return to gray, your voice assistant thinks you weren't talking to Google.
	Is processing what you said.	You can now look away.
	Couldn't find a response to your question or command, but is ready to listen if you continue to look at the camera.	Say your question or command in a different way.

Troubleshoot issues

If your voice assistant doesn’t respond when you use Look and Talk, try to:

Make sure that Look and Talk is still turned on.
Teach your voice assistant your voice again.

Understand how it works

Important: Nest Hub Max uses machine learning to ensure Look and Talk works as accurately as possible, but the technology isn't always perfect. For example, your device may not be able to tell the difference between you and a photograph of your face. Also, if another member of your household looks similar to you, the device may identify them as you.

Your Nest Hub Max uses camera sensing and video analysis to detect if you're looking at it to activate the voice assistant. Your video is processed on-device and isn’t sent to Google servers.

When in standby mode, the voice assistant waits until it detects an activation. It won't send what you're saying to Google or anyone else.

Once the voice assistant detects an activation, it exits standby mode and sends your request to Google servers.

The voice assistant also uses Face Match and Voice Match so Look and Talk will work just for those who turn it on. If others want to use Look and Talk, they can set it up in their Google Home app settings.

You can turn this feature off at any time.

For more information about privacy controls, go to:

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