It's the little things you guys. Sometimes, you're sitting in the living room and you just want to turn on your TV without reaching for that remote. Sure, you can ask Home to play something on your Chromecast, which will automatically turn the TV on, but then it'll start playing something while maybe you just wanted to see those pretty backdrops. And forget about turning the TV off, that just didn't work.

Until yesterday that is. Google published a new support document that explains that you can now turn on and off the TV with Google Home. You'll need to have a Chromecast connected to your TV and for the TV to support HDMI-CEC with CEC turned on (basically this is what allows the TV to turn on automatically through an HDMI command). You'll also have to plug the Chromecast into a wall outlet and not use your TV's USB ports for its power, because that would mean the Chromecast will be off when the TV is off.

Alright, with that out of the way, you can say:

Turn on/the/my TV," "Turn on/the/my <device name>," "Power on/the/my TV," "Power on/the/my <device name>" to turn on the TV.

"Turn off/the/my TV," "Turn off/the/my <device name>," "Power off/the/my TV," "Power off/the/my <device name>" to turn off the TV.

You'll need to specify the name of the device if you have several Chromecasts connected to several TVs, or set a default TV in your Google Home app's Devices list if you want it to work on one TV most of the time. After probing for feedback, we're pretty confident that TV control is new and wasn't working even a week ago.

Google's support page says that this won't work with Android TV or TVs with Chromecast built-in, but many users are confirming it works on their SHIELD TV as well. We're not sure if that's the SHIELD controller picking up the command and doing the magic without any need for the Home, or if it's only working on SHIELD because it already got the Assistant and some sort of compatibility in its latest firmware to make this work. So take that with a grain of salt and let us know if you try it on your Android TV box or Chromecast built-in TV.

Image credit: TechnoBuffalo