Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced voice activated assistant device Google Home on Wednesday at the company’s annual developer’s conference. This marked it as the first direct competitor to the Amazon Echo in the market of voice-activated smart speakers.
Spearheaded by VP of product management Mario Queiroz, the man behind the Chromecast, Home will be his next project that will hopefully have the same success.
The voice-activated personal assistant will be able to tell you everything you need to know when prompted, as well as the ability to control other apps. Featuring far-field microphones, the device can hear you in just about any room in your home. It will be able to handle your shopping list, set alarms and timers, control your music and play it through its built-in speaker, and even manage the temperature of you home through Google’s Nest thermostat.
These are just some of the things that Google Home will be able to do. What its full capabilities will be are still up in the air, but with Google search as its main proponent, it would appear to be able to answer any question you give it.
While Amazon has launched this smart assistant craze, selling an estimated millions of devices in less than two years for roughly $180, Google intends to not go down without a fight in this exciting new market.
The Home itself is roughly the size of a grapefruit, making it small enough to fit in any nook in the kitchen or living room. Dancing lights on the top of it let you know when it’s active and listening.
At first, Home won’t be able to support multiple Google accounts, but Google claims that this will be a feature in time. It’s no surprise that Home will also be compatible with Chromcast, allowing you to control what you view on your TV, like shuffling through clips on YouTube.
For now, no release date or retail price has been given for when the Home will come home. Time will tell whether Home will beat Echo or fall to the wayside. Of course that will be for the consumer to decide.