We have a new player in the market of voice activated digital assistant better known as Google Home, which by the way was unveiled this past Tuesday at Google I/O. This now rivals the current Amazon Echo which itself started out as a simplified voice activated Wi-Fi speaker that responds to certain commands. Now a year into the market, Echo has morphed into a centralize hub that's capable of controlling your entire home automation, connecting to various services and devices.
In my observation of Google Home, it pretty much operates like Amazon Echo, it has a Wi-Fi connected speaker that beams playback music straight from the cloud. It can cast music from Android and iOS devices, similar to what you have with Googles Chromecast Audio. Present is a built-in far field microphone that is able to pick up any voice from greater distance. On the top face of Google Home, there is noticeable LEDs that illuminates when it is working to answer any of your questions or commands.
In terms of design, Google Home is much smaller than the Amazin Echo, almost resembling a Frabreeze air freshener. Park it next to lamp or a set of books, it will definitely camaflouge itself from your field of view. The base of Google Home is customizable allowing potiential users to change the color or even material to coincide with the environment, for example instead of going with the basic gray plastic base, you have an assortment of colors and materials to choose from.
The wireless speakers allows you to summon Google Assistant, that includes your calendar, alarm and schedule reminders. Probably what's considered a big deal to me is how Google Home will be able to seamlessly communicate with home automated devices such as the Nest thermostat.
Video source: GolemDE
What's so great about Google Home is how it communicates well with all of Google's products such as Chromecast. Users can actually call upon YouTube to play a particular video. You have total integration of all of Google's own software ( Calendar, YouTube, Google search etc) intertwine into one device.
There's is no listed price for Google Home at the moment, but there's a safe bet the price will be comparable to the Amazon Echo, which cost $179, schedule launch is expected to take place this Fall.