Google has unveiled a virtual home assistant device that brings together the internet titan’s strengths to challenge rival Amazon Echo.
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Google Home is a voice-activated home product that allows you and your family to get answers from Google, stream music, and manage everyday tasks. Our personal assistant gets trained on Google search, which is more widely used than Microsoft’s Bing.
Called Google Home and voice-activated with the entire power of Google’s search engine built into it, Home is set to launch later this year.
Alphabet’s shares were up 0.1% to $721.18 in early afternoon trading on Wednesday.
As Forbes reported, Google promises Home will work as a “controller for the home”, eventually integrating with smart devices throughout your daily life like thermostats, lights, and the Chromecast, along with a host of software services including Spotify, Uber, GrubHub, OpenTable, and ticketmaster.
For the moment however, Google says its features will be limited to one its very familiar with, which probably isn’t that much of a surprise given it’s a smart home device with lots of potentially hazardous access. “It’s created to fit your home with customisable bases in different colors and materials”.
“The assistant us conversational – an ongoing two-way dialogue between you and Google that understands your world and helps you get things done”, the company explained on its blog.
Also, since Google Home comes with Cast support, users can command any speaker to play music on other speakers, similar to the way Google Cast Audio works.
You can do multiple things like – book a vehicle, order dinner, and send flowers to friends.
There’s also an Incognito mode that provides end-to-end encryption, discreet notifications, and message expiration.
According to the details shared by unidentified people aware familiar with Google’s plans, the Google home device will likely hit the markets in fall this year. We also introduced a feature called Knock Knock, which gives you a live video of the other caller before you answer.
Both apps will be available this summer, United States time.
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Allo and Duo are based on your phone number, so you can communicate with anyone regardless of whether they’re on Android or iOS.
