Google Home, the new voice-powered speaker, can play the music you tell it to, greet you each morning with a weather report and a reminder of your appointments, and even control playback on that old Chromecast streaming stick you have plugged into your TV. It will perform numerous same tasks as Echo, including playing music and fielding questions plus controlling compatible lights and appliances.
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The speaker, which will come in a range of colours to match home decor, uses artificial intelligence to learn about the user and get to know their needs, likes and dislikes.
That’s one reason why Google eventually wants the assistant on more devices, though the company now doesn’t have plans to build directly into Android the way Siri is automatically included in Apple’s mobile software.
LED lights on top of the device – in the familiar Google primary colours – are turned on when the the device is listening. That being said, Google WiFi also works for OnHub routers, as pointed out by CNET. “This isn’t to say that Google is a guaranteed victor, but I believe it’s fair to say that it’s the company most other players have to beat”. Unless I’m overlooking technical limitations, I’ve got to think Google will offer a more universal solution in the future, which will be highly annoying to early adopters that have individual gadgets dotted all over their house. Facebook Messenger also has opt-in encryption, and uses what is widely regarded as the gold standard for encrypting messages, just like Google does. While pre-orders for the Google Home are live from today, the device is expected to begin shipping next month, making it available just in time for those who are looking at this product as a holiday gift. The integration of the Assistant with Allo, Google’s newly released messaging app, was just the beginning, Pichai said.
Google Home supports music streaming from YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, Google Play Music and TuneIn. To use it, a user will simply say “OK Google” and then ask away.
Google Home is a Wi-Fi speaker that can stream music directly from the cloud. The Google Pixel does that beautifully by building a solid phone inside and out, but for the launch of such a groundbreaking move, the phone lacks any groundbreaking features.
Google’s new expandable system allows for stronger Wi-Fi coverage in the home, using multiple Wi-Fi points that work together to offer a consistently strong signal. Users can give hands-free commands via voice, with a mute microphone option for turning it off. You can ask it questions if you ever get stumped, and it’s synced into your Google goodies, so you won’t have to worry about missing important dates or events.
The device will be available in November and sold in such stores as Best Buy, Target and Walmart.
This is a real toss up.
Now the Echo is getting some company. The list of Google Home launch partners is much smaller than the very big offering of Echo friends. Google Assistant is pulling all this information from your Gmail, calendar and other Google Maps. That’s where these speakers really differ.
Other than that, though, Home feels like it will make for a solid entry into this market. Google showed how Chromecast can work as a smart endpoint in conjunction with Google Home, allowing a Chromecast-ready television to broadcast the results of queries like, “Show photos from October” or “Play John Oliver clips”.
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“It lets us take full advantage of our capabilities like the Google Assistant and lets us harness years of expertise we have built up in machine learning and AI to deliver the simple, smart and fast experiences that users expect from us”, he said. This feature paired with Google Assistant really sets it apart from Echo in terms of functionality, and at $129 it’s cheaper than the full Echo as well.
