Google Home finally plays nicely with its own Google Play Movies

Better late than never. Google has been showing off a number of shiny new features at its annual I/O Developer Conference, with upgrades announced to everything from Google Maps to Gmail to Google News. But one of the quieter announcements may be one of the more beneficial to Google users. Nearly two years after Google Home first made its debut, it’s now finally compatible with Google Play Movies. That means that you can now control Google’s native video streaming service using your Google Assistant and your voice.

The lack of this feature seemed to be a rather strange oversight from the Google Home team. After all, at launch in 2016, Google Home was able to communicate with your television’s Chromecast device and launch movies and shows from Netflix. But if you wanted to ask Assistant to launch something from Google Play Movies, you were out of luck. Until now, that is.

Now people with content in their Google Play Movies queue found that they were able to send them to their connected television sets by telling Google Assistant (via Google Home) to play one of these titles. Google did not make this announcement with any fanfare — after all, probably better not to point out the lack of a feature that probably should have been available at launch. But hey, we are not complaining now have access to even more movies by using our voice.

Per a quick post on the Google Blog, the company notes, “The Assistant on Google Home has delivered hours of music, podcasts, books, and now includes movies and TV shows from Google Play Movies and TV. A simple “OK Google” gives you access to films and shows you’ve rented or purchased, plus content shared through Family Library.”

Though the feature officially began rolling out on Wednesday, May 10, don’t be alarmed if you do not see the option of playing content from Google Play Movies quite yet. Sometimes, these new features can take a little while to hit all devices across the country, so you can expect to see this new functionality within the next few days if you haven’t already.