Right now, you can preorder Google Home, a direct competitor to Amazon Echo. The hardware device will cost $129, $50 cheaper than Amazon’s device. It has been available in the US and begins shipping on November 4th. Google Home is a little smaller than Siri and a lot sharper than Alexa.
Google Home is packed with a touch-sensitive surface that allows you to adjust the volume or pause whatever is playing. Besides, it has got three speakers featuring a little better sound quality than its main rival. The device comes in white color and its design takes inspiration from household items such as candles and wine glasses.
Google Home is compatible with YouTube Music and Google Play Music and offers six months free of YouTube Red. Moreover, it works well with Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio and Tuneln, so you will have a variety of choices for music. It also works with Google’s Chromecast video which can be used to cast the music to your TV connected to Chromecast or even speakers in the house. Plus, you can play music in various rooms at the same time.
There are an abundance of devices that are able to listen when you say “OK Google”. Google aims to determine whatever device is closest to you, and respond by using that gadget. While Echo has seven microphones for listening, Google Home is equipped with only two ones. However, it is capable of determining a speaker’s location, and responding on which Google device was closest, such as your Home, your phone, and your smartwatch.
Noticeably, Home is designed to some third-party services, so you can employ it to call an Uber or play music from Spotify. Google also plans to offer an API for third-party apps. The company hasn’t made the Home platform available to third-party developers, but Amazon Echo already did this.
Home will also act as a command in the future, so it can be used to take control of a few smart light bulb systems like Philips Hue. The search giant adds, Home will integrate with Sonos in the coming time.
So, it can be seen that, similar to Echo, Google Home will have the ability to control smart-home devices.
It’s a pity that Google Home has yet to work with multiple accounts at a time. The hardware device can only respond with a calendar entries for each person, and fail to distinguish between two different voices. Google says they are working to fix the problem. Mario Queiroz, Google’s vice president of product management, also says they have been making efforts to make Home identify different people in the room.
As far as we can see with its own voice-enabled intelligent speaker fueled by Google Assistant, the search giant does hope to take over everyone’s home entertainment system. This means that Google wants Home to rule everyone’s home, phone and TV. And the company is really serious about this ambitious plan. They might be on the way to take on Amazon Echo’s voice assistant, Alexa, with Google Home that’s packed with a range of cool features.