Request for Smugmug / Google Home app integration

denarius

This is a request that you consider getting Smugmug added to the list of sites that can be selected in the Google Home > Devices > Chromecast > "Edit Ambient Mode" > "Experimental sources and content" page, so that I could choose which of my Smugmug collections will be displayed in the random Chromecast slideshow when it is idle.

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When Google Chromecast is not streaming anything from a local device, it enters "ambient mode" and shows a slideshow of random art, landscape, or satellite images. I have often wished I could control what images get displayed.

Tonight while clicking through the Google Home app on my Android phone I discovered an "Edit Ambient Mode" option and found I could choose to display images from Google Photos, Flickr or Facebook!

The connection to Flickr failed with Flickr indicating that the requesting app (Google Home) had not provided the necessary info, but the connection to Facebook succeeded. I was able to add specific Facebook photo albums to be among those images displayed in the Chromecast ambient mode slide show. However, most of my image collections are on Smugmug, so I will have to add them to Facebook before I can see them on the Chromecast slideshow.

Hence the feature request.

Thanks!

leftquark

Great question. It looks like Google doesn't have an open way to get SmugMug integrated into Chromecast but I'll reach out to Google and see if we can get them interested. It would also help if you submitted Feedback asking for SmugMug to be included in the list of experimental options.

FWIW I was able to successfully connect to Flickr through the Chromecast.

denarius

Thank you for your response. That would be great if you could get some interest from Google about that. Today I did submit a Feedback about adding SmugMug to the experimental options.

Could you please explain what you meant by connecting to Flickr "through the Chromecast"? Did you make the connection via the Google Home app? If so, was it on an iOS phone or Android? If not through the Google Home app, how else does one do it?

Trying again today on my Android phone, after logging into Flickr and authorizing the connection, Flickr tells me "Flickr doesn't recognise the 'oauth_token' this application is trying to use" and "it's a third party problem, not a Flickr problem." I also submitted Feedback with info about that.

Thanks!

denarius

I now see, in the Chromecast support forum, that other users have successfully connected to their Flickr accounts via the Android Google Home app. Also, various users have quirky issues with how it functions. I think I will just duplicate my albums on Google Photo, since that integration is working well. Then I will hope for a future SmugMug integration.

Lurch II

Add me to the list seeking Google integration with Smugs. I have almost all my photos worth looking at ( and many that probably aren't) in Smugs. Would love to be able to show them on my Google Home Hub directly without dumping them into Google Photos. Will also toss this suggestion to Google so hopefully they will be receptive to an overture from Smugs.