More details on Google Home came yesterday at Google’s keynote event in San Francisco. These are a few of the features of Google Home that went a bit under the radar but are worth noting in a bit more detail.
1Price
Google has priced the Home competitively at $129, noticeably cheaper than the $180 for the Echo, Google Home’s main rival. This price plus it’s features are sure to make Google Home popular enough to make Alexa sweat a bit.
2Capacitive top
This is a neat feature indeed. The touch sensitive top means that if you need to activate Google Home and don’t want to use your voice, for whatever reason, you can simply tap the top and it’ll wake up and be ready to do it’s thing. It’s also handy if you plan on having Google Home bedside, and use it as an alarm clock. Just tap the top to silence the alarm instead of having to shout first thing in the morning.
3Interchangeable bases
This one is definitely exciting. One thing I wish was available on the Amazon Echo is an option for some color, as it’s a big black cylinder that sticks out in my living room. Google Home has kindly added six different swappable base options in different colors and materials so that it will better suit me and my space. Also, this means that potential third-party bases may be made with Home compatibility for further style and maybe functionality will come to Google Home in the future.
4Television support
The ability to send a YouTube video straight to my TV using only my voice is something I wish I had the capability of doing years ago. Google Home’s ability to control my Chromecast or Android TV automatically is a huge leap over the Echo. It’s a surprise that Echo cannot do this in Amazon’s own ecosystem of products considering they have all the tools, but points to Google for adding this excellent feature.
5Machine Learning
Google Assistant is something Google has been pushing for a while now, and the machine learning engine behind it makes the Google Home experience an always improving and learning one. Home will only get better as you use it, and will learn new tricks automatically without needing any sort of updates or product refreshes to get them.
6Context awareness
The ability to ask a follow-up question is something Google users have taken for granted for a while now, since it’s been a part of Android for a few years. Google Home brings that functionality to your home with Google Assistant’s ability to be context aware and be able to respond to follow-ups like “What team does LeBron James play for?” and then “What’s his uniform number” and get the right answer without having to clarify. A game changer for trivia night at home.
7Cast support
Cast support for audio and video is a big feature of Google Home, for good reason. Cast allows Home to act as a whole-home stereo system through Chromecast Audio and Cast-enabled speakers. The party-hosting possibilities with Google Home are infinite and awesome.
8Design
The simple, small design of Google Home is certainly a killer feature, seeing as it is something that will be visible and part of your home and everyday life. Google did well to make the Home pleasing and unobtrusive, as well as customization so it won’t stand out, but still be functional.
9Speakers
One place where Amazon Echo suffers the most is definitely in speaker performance. While by no means the worst ever, the Echo’s speaker is not excellent for music playback. Google Home will (hopefully) be an improvement in that regard with it’s speaker design which they claim will be loud and great for music and everyday use.
10Made by Google
Being “Made by Google” means that Google Home has access to the whole of the Google ecosystem. That means an excellent, feature-rich search that trounces Echo’s Alexa platform for knowledge-based inquiries, as well as compatibility with many devices and systems like Android, Chromecast, Chrome OS and more.
I would argue that a few features listed aren’t features YET, maybe not ever. For example, “made by Google” isn’t a feature as much as it’s merely a brand loyalty thing and I would call it a stretch to say it “flew under the radar”. They also called the Pixel “Made by Google” but it’s a well known secret that HTC actually made the phones. Context awareness is only a promised feature and not one that was actually demonstrated. All of the Google Home responses were pre-recorded answers to predetermined questions. We haven’t seen it perform yet, we only saw what they want us to believe how it WILL perform. One of the BIG issues is the lack of product partners. Outside of their own products and Nest (oh wait, that’s one of their products too!!!) and Samsung SmartThings, there really weren’t any. And if the rumor is correct that Google will NOT allow any partners that have a relationship with Amazon Echo, it’l going to hurt the product overall. The Echo supports my ecobee thermostat. I doubt Google ever will.
SmartThings and OnHub support opens up both IFTTT and Phillips Hue. Allo demonstrates context aware search/conversations on iOS and Android now. So, we can see how it performs now. Try Allo, it works great! So, they did show us how it works now, and they are compatible with the three most popular automation systems on the market.
Also, releasing the API now is a great first step to get partners to add support Google Home either soon after or even before they release.
That rumor about partners having a relationship with Echo is false. SmartThings has a relationship with Echo, and so does Phillips Hue; both of those can be controlled through Google Assistant (via Allo) if you have an OnHub router. FYI I received an email from Google yesterday indicating that OnHub “is expanding” via Google WiFi, and Google Home will also work with all of the OnHub’s on.here functionality.