The battle for home assistants heats up! Can Google take down Amazon?
The next major, revolutionary tech device might not be far off from mass adoption, given how many big tech players are moving into the space. Now, I’m not talking about smartwatches (please), I’m talking about smart speakers that live in your home and allow you to interact with their personal digital assistant software. amazon was first in this space with the Echo coming out way back in 2014. But now Google has announced Google Home, it’s own smart speaker system. And there’s even rumors that Apple has been working on a Siri smart home speak for years (well before Amazon unveiled the echo).
It’s quite possible in a few years time smart speaks in our homes could be as ubiquitous as the smartphones in our pockets. Apple’s yet-to-be-announced Siri speaker aside, how does Google’s smart speaker stack up against Amazon’s? We took a look to find out.
Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Design
Both smart speakers are cylindrical in shape. The Echo is slightly taller and comes in a sleek black. A blue ring at its top glows when you are interacting with it. Google’s Home, on the other hand, is a bit squatter with a white top molding with four colored lights on it. The bottom half of the Home can be customized with various colors to match your style.
For my taste, I like the look of the Echo better. It just looks sleeker. But the Home will give you more options that could make it easier to mesh with your decor.
Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Conversational commands
The way you interact with both smart speakers is, of course, by voice. For the Echo you are talking to Amazon’s assistant, Alexa. On the Home you are interacting with Google Assistant, which is basically a voice given to Google’s powerful search engine. The fact that Home doesn’t have an assistant with a human name is a bit of a turn off. Why? When you’re speaking in your home it’s nice to think you are talking to something like you instead of a cold computer mainframe. Echo’s Alexa name is more beneficial because you activate it by saying “Alexa” and then speaking your command. For the Home you say “OK, Google.”
Naming conventions aside, Home’s AI seems to beat Echo’s. Home has the ability to carry out tasks based on conversations, not just commands. For example, you could say:
“How many States are there in America?”
“Which one is closest?”
“Show me a map on TV.”
These are three different queries that rely on each other. Google Home can follow your line of questioning and though. Echo can’t. Echo’s commands are limited to doing on this at a time. It can’t connect the dots of a conversations.
Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Media abilities
Another area where Home wins is in its media capabilities. Like the Echo, Home can stream from a number of music services including Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and others. However, the Echo is limited to streaming this music to multiple Echos in your home. Echo's can’t since with each other. Google Homes can, which allows it to play multi-room audio. Additionally, Home can work with Chromecast to play your music through non-Home speakers or launch a video on a Chromecast-connected television.
Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Personal assistant tasks
But when we get to the two performing tasks, the Echo wins…for now. Yes, Home is better at conversation, but Echo can carry out more tasks (which it calls “skills”) thank in large part to third-party developers adopting its rich SDK. Both Home and Echo can do tasks such as adding items to a calendar, making a shopping list, making a to do list, checking flight statuses, and tracking a package, but right now only Echo can also do things like order a pizza, call an Uber, of play a game like Jeopardy. Echo supports over 900 tasks at the moment, which means Home has quite a lot of catching up to do.
Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Third party smart home device integration
Echo also wins with support for third party smart home devices. Right now the only smart home device Google says Home supports is its Nest thermostat. Support for more devices are coming, but again the Echo has a big lead as it supports products from Nest, Ecobee, SmartThings, Wink, Insteon, Belkin WeMo, Philips Hue, Lifx, Big Ass Fans, IFTTT, other smart home devices via its skills.
Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Price & Verdict
As of now, Echo edges out Home. Echo has hundreds of more skills than Home does. But Home could gain those skills quickly and if it does Home’s conversational assistant could win the battle. Neither the Echo or Home are out in the UK, so we’re all gonna have to wait a bit longer to use them. Right now Echo is sold in the US for $180 and Google’s Home will debut there later this year for a similar price.
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