Google Home

Google Home

Google Home is a voice-activated speaker powered by the Google Assistant. Google Home is the Echo competitor that puts the search giant’s much-touted new Google Assistant intelligence technology inside a small, but powerful Echo-like speaker and microphone.

Both wildly intelligent and supremely versatile in the ways in which it can be used, Google Home is farther along in its first week than Amazon Echo was in its first six months. It still has a ways to go to catch up – starting, perhaps, with better integration with Google’s own services – but it has real potential to one day be the smart home command center Google wants it to be.

HIGHS

• It can be personalized to you, giving you info on your commute, weather, and calendar
• Works with Chromecast
• Answers questions and follow-ups fairly well
• Lots of choices for music

LOWS

Can only link to one Google account for now

Limited smart home control

Design and features

The Home reminds me a little of a nesting doll that’s had its top shorn off at an angle. It’s white and comes with a gray base, but for another $20 you can get orange, purple, or teal fabric, and $40 will get you a metal version in black, white, or copper. (They actually have fancier names, but I’m not going to call something mango and expect you to know what I’m talking about.)

The angled top is touch-sensitive and illuminates with multi-colored dots when you summon the device with an “OK, Google” or “Hey, Google,” the phrases that signal it should start listening. You can use the surface to change the volume, start a request, play or pause music, or turn off an alarm or timer. There’s a microphone button in the back, so you can ensure the device isn’t listening.

Inside are two far-field microphones, five fewer than the Echo’s seven. I was fine calling out commands in my 850-square-foot condo, but that’s because the Home was centrally located. If you have more than one, only the nearest one should respond, so you don’t have a chorus of Homes answering your requests.

Getting Google Home up and running takes just minutes. I downloaded the iOS Google Home app, added the device, and was walked through a few basics on my phone. Then it was ready to start doing my bidding.

In control

Alexa launched with limited ability to control smart-home devices, and Google Home works with a similar small number at the moment: Philips Hue bulbs, SmartThings devices, Nest, and If This Then That recipes. What it does, it does well, though. While I need a complicated recipe from a third-party app to turn my Hue bulbs purple with Alexa, Google Home does it all on its own.