Hey y'all, it's Rose.
And per your feedback, we're going to take a look at Google Home today.
Google Home is a $129 smart speaker similar to Amazon's Echo.
I've been an Echo user for almost two years, so swapping over to home this month was tough,
but I've found that there are both pros and cons to doing so.
Hardware wise, Google Home has a simple design.
There's a mute button on the back, it requires power, offers a touch interface that allows
you to adjust the volume, or tap to pause, and it also has a swappable base.
If you don't like the base color it ships with, you can purchase a new base from the
Google Store for $20 with colors ranging from mango to copper.
As a smart speaker, streaming music is one of the devices most popular features.
Google Home has a richer, deeper sound when compared to Amazon Echo, and it also supports
multi-room audio.
I want to see y'all who want to plan with me
Wave your hands across the land if we family Say hot damn hot damn we want to jamboree
Even still, I prefer using Echo DOT for music because it can stream to my Bluetooth speaker,
something Google Home can't do.
It also offers an audio jack, and Amazon Music Unlimited is cheaper than Google Play Music.
If you prefer to use other music services, you can use the app to set your preferred
default.
From the app, you can also manage your Chromecast devices.
One killer feature unique to Google Home is voice recognition.
It can recognize up to 6 different users and attach to their Google profile.
However, it's not perfect.
For example, this is actually my sister's voice, but Google Home thinks it's me.
"What's my favorite color?"
"You told me that you like white."
That said, it's not like Google knows that much about me anyway, right?
"Sure Rose.
On Monday, there's only one thing, it starts at 9am, and the title is: appointment with
your doctor to check out your."
When it comes to being a personal assistant, Google Home has hits and misses.
The ability to have a contextual conversation makes it a more natural assistant.
Hey Google, how long would it take to drive to Las Vegas?
With light traffic, it will take one day and two hours to drive to Las Vegas.
Hey Google, how much is a plane ticket there?
Upcoming round trip flights from Nashville to Las Vegas start at $82.
Did you have any dates in mind?
Mañana.
Pretty cool no doubt, but reminders and shopping lists are among my top used features.
And unfortunately, these are areas where Google is behind.
This is a reminder, take the cupcakes out of the oven.
Sorry, create reminder is not yet supported.
Plus, to access my shopping list using the Alexa app takes two quick clicks while Google
Home takes three, and it routes you to an outside website.
Sounds petty, but when you want something fast, this can be an annoyance.
As far as helping out in the kitchen, Google's intelligence gives it an edge.
How do you chop a shallot?
On the website cookthink.com they say to slice a shallot first cut it in half through the
root.
Next, cut the papery end off and discard it.
This will make the skin easier to peel away.
Now, just slice across the shallot cross wise.
But sometimes I prefer Alexa because she gets straight to the point.
Echo is also in the lead with Echo Calling.
Google's calling feature isn't ready yet but when it is, it will use voice recognition
to making calling more intelligent.
In regards to smart home control, Echo works with way more smart home devices, but Google
Home works with plenty, including WEMO, Wink, SmartThings, and IFTTT.
That said, I had trouble getting it to control my Hue lights but it worked great with SmartThings
and Stringify.
Google is smarter, has more personality, can dig into your Google account, and it has a
better speaker.
Plus, it's longer wake phrase makes it less likely that it will listen in when you want
privacy.
However, as music, reminder, timers, and shopping lists are my top use cases, I'm calling Echo
DOT the winner.
Dot over Echo because it's cheaper and it has all of the same features except for audio
quality, which is a non-issue for me because I connect it via Bluetooth to a speaker.
That said, things change rapidly in this space, and I have no doubt that Google Home can catch
up.
If you want to keep track of changes, and do a deeper comparison, check out the link
in the comment section below.
Otherwise, I appreciate y'all spending time with me today, and I will see you soon!