Let's Talk About Google Home
and colours).
We have to mention it though: most of our friends say Home looks like an air freshener. We don't mind as that just means we can place it anywhere, from kitchen to bedroom. It doesn't smell like potpourri thankfully.
The top of Home slopes at an angle and hides a touch-sensitive panel that you can swipe gestures upon to change volume, play and pause music, and activate Assistant's listening mode. You'll see colourful, very Googley lights glow in the panel when Home hears its wake words "OK Google" or "Hey Google" or it responds to a command.
Amazon Echo, on the other hand, has a blue ring of light at the top with a physical rotation ring. Echo also has physical buttons press to mute the listening mode and whatnot, which just doesn't look or feel as futuristic as Home's setup.
However, we found that their pickup weren't very accurate when the device's speaker at the bottom is blaring out tunes full blast. With quieter or no music playing, however, it had no problem hearing us. We suspect Google will be tweaking the device for regional accents as and when it rolls out across non-US countries.
Similar to Amazon Echo, Home can listen and respond to your voice commands. You can't change the OK Google/Hey Google wake words, and you must say them every single time you want to interact with Home. This can be a bit of a barrier for Assistant's potential conversational capabilities and, just like with Echo, we'd like a more natural to-and-fro conversation.
Some people (cough Edward Snowden) don't like the idea of Google always listening to you and your household while relaying information to the cloud for processing. So, in an effort to alleviate any privacy concerns, Google has promised it's not constantly recording you, and it even includes a mute button that completely turns off the listening feature. Google also allows you to peek at all the data Home sends back and forth (go to myactivity.google.com).
When we looked at our activity, it was obvious that we mostly use Home as a connected music speaker.
We streamed tunes from built-in sources like Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, and Pandora. We even used it to wirelessly cast audio from our phone and laptop.
Unfortunately, Google Home doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity like Echo, so you'll need to use apps and services with it that support Google Cast - but that's basically everything.
Home can also send audio to a Chromecast Audio-connected speaker. Just say "Hey Google, play this on Chromecast Audio". Or if you plug a Chromecast into, let's say, a bedroom TV, you can say "OK Google, play Pocket-lint videos on my bedroom TV" (it only does this with YouTube videos, at the moment).
Finally, you can group multiple Home speakers together and stream through all them at the same time. Echo can group Echo units together, too, plus it supports casting to Fire TV devices.
Because we reviewed Home at Christmas time, our most common command was: "OK Google, play some Christmas music", to which it always complied with related playlists from Google Play. We asked it to play specific songs, artists, and albums as well. It streamed all that within seconds and without issue.
And she's always waiting for you to talk to it or ask it something. Currently, you can call on those everyday, mundane tasks like manage cooking timers, set morning alarms, and remember shopping lists. You can also ask Assistant to fetch weather and traffic information, look up flights, check your calendar, get local business information, and order an Uber for you.
Assistant even does jokes and trivia: Just say "OK Google, entertain me" and see what happens next.
For
Good-looking design will integrate anywhere around the home, touchpanel controls, future potential is great, in-depth conversational and search-based resultsAgainst
Less third-party app support than Amazon Echo, Assistant doesn't sound as good as Amazon Alexa, microphone pick-up limited when music is playingGoogle Home review: Flexible design
- 96.4mm (D), 142.8mm (H); 477g
- White finish, interchangeable bases
- Touchpanel and voice control
and colours).
We have to mention it though: most of our friends say Home looks like an air freshener. We don't mind as that just means we can place it anywhere, from kitchen to bedroom. It doesn't smell like potpourri thankfully.
The top of Home slopes at an angle and hides a touch-sensitive panel that you can swipe gestures upon to change volume, play and pause music, and activate Assistant's listening mode. You'll see colourful, very Googley lights glow in the panel when Home hears its wake words "OK Google" or "Hey Google" or it responds to a command.
Amazon Echo, on the other hand, has a blue ring of light at the top with a physical rotation ring. Echo also has physical buttons press to mute the listening mode and whatnot, which just doesn't look or feel as futuristic as Home's setup.
Google Home review: Voice control
- Voice-control using "OK Google" or "Hey Google" wake words
- Far-field voice recognition for hands-free use
However, we found that their pickup weren't very accurate when the device's speaker at the bottom is blaring out tunes full blast. With quieter or no music playing, however, it had no problem hearing us. We suspect Google will be tweaking the device for regional accents as and when it rolls out across non-US countries.
Similar to Amazon Echo, Home can listen and respond to your voice commands. You can't change the OK Google/Hey Google wake words, and you must say them every single time you want to interact with Home. This can be a bit of a barrier for Assistant's potential conversational capabilities and, just like with Echo, we'd like a more natural to-and-fro conversation.
Some people (cough Edward Snowden) don't like the idea of Google always listening to you and your household while relaying information to the cloud for processing. So, in an effort to alleviate any privacy concerns, Google has promised it's not constantly recording you, and it even includes a mute button that completely turns off the listening feature. Google also allows you to peek at all the data Home sends back and forth (go to myactivity.google.com).
When we looked at our activity, it was obvious that we mostly use Home as a connected music speaker.
Google Home review: Speaker quality
- 2-inch speaker driver
- Two 2-inch passive radiators
- No Bluetooth connectivity
We streamed tunes from built-in sources like Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, and Pandora. We even used it to wirelessly cast audio from our phone and laptop.
Unfortunately, Google Home doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity like Echo, so you'll need to use apps and services with it that support Google Cast - but that's basically everything.
Home can also send audio to a Chromecast Audio-connected speaker. Just say "Hey Google, play this on Chromecast Audio". Or if you plug a Chromecast into, let's say, a bedroom TV, you can say "OK Google, play Pocket-lint videos on my bedroom TV" (it only does this with YouTube videos, at the moment).
Finally, you can group multiple Home speakers together and stream through all them at the same time. Echo can group Echo units together, too, plus it supports casting to Fire TV devices.
Because we reviewed Home at Christmas time, our most common command was: "OK Google, play some Christmas music", to which it always complied with related playlists from Google Play. We asked it to play specific songs, artists, and albums as well. It streamed all that within seconds and without issue.
Google Home review: Google Assistant
- Supports Android 4.2 / iOS 8.0 and higher
And she's always waiting for you to talk to it or ask it something. Currently, you can call on those everyday, mundane tasks like manage cooking timers, set morning alarms, and remember shopping lists. You can also ask Assistant to fetch weather and traffic information, look up flights, check your calendar, get local business information, and order an Uber for you.
Assistant even does jokes and trivia: Just say "OK Google, entertain me" and see what happens next.
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