I know a little German. I have a good idea on which airline to use for a trip to Europe. My suitcase–which measures 62 inches in total dimensions (length, height, and depth)–will fit fine on United Airlines as a checked bag. I’m listening to a British electronic band called Chase & Status, which matches up nicely with my musical tastes. I’m surrounded by a sea of bright glowing lights in my office. I found a great pizza place.
As it turns out, none of these things were possible before I started using the new Google Home speaker. I should say–they were possible but required more effort. We’re all accustomed to the hunt and peck method of finding information on the web, controlling the lights in our home with an app, and finding obscure playlists on Spotify, but in all of the cases above, I spoke to a robot instead. My suitcase size example in particular (“OK, Google–what is the max for a checked bag on United Airlines?”) worked perfectly, and it’s amazingly fast. It takes longer to type that all by text and hunt around for answers.
The robot I used is called the Assistant and it runs on the small, hand-sized speaker, which costs $129. I’m amazed by the power of voice searches and how this could make life and work flow easier and smoother. It fits in nicely with my daily routine. The Home speaker responds with cheerful and almost immediate answers much more often and faster than the Amazon Alexa voice assistant on the Echo speaker (which costs $180) and other Alexa-enabled devices. Both Home and Echo respond to voice commands, but only the Home can talk to you about popular eateries near you, suitcase sizes, bands that match up with your musical tastes, and much more–all without too many glitches.
Both assistants can handle basic searches, of course. I asked about the population of Austria (where I’m heading on a vacation) and both bots answered correctly–almost 9 million. When I asked about which country has the highest population in Europe, both snapped back and said Russia. No problems so far.
Alexa doesn’t process nearly as many search requests by voice, which isn’t that surprising. Google Home can dive into an ocean of online searches, and the one big difference here is that the Home speaker knows all about you. Alexa is a bit more generic, although that assistant supports far more connected home devices, can let you order a pizza by voice and have it delivered, can read entire books, play games with you that seem like old radio programs come to life, and is more advanced in terms of the “skills” and features it offers. It’s also been out since June of 2015.
Google Home is the speaker you want for conversation–Alexa is not nearly as helpful. The Assistant understands context, so if you ask about the most famous movie ever made in Austria (e.g., The Sound of Music) and then ask about who starred in that movie, you’ll get the right answer. It’s also worth noting that the Assistant is available within the free Google Allo app. If you add @google to any conversation and ask a question, the app will also understand the context of your person-to-person conversation.
With the speaker, one strange finding had to do with searching for pizza places. The Assistant didn’t seem to know there’s a place called Pompeii Pizza near me that has a 4.5 star rating. It suggested Broadway Pizza instead, possibly because it’s a little closer (by maybe a half mile) but only has a 3.7 star rating. The problem is that, if I decide to use Google Home on a consistent basis and rely on it during my normal day, I will expect the best results. That said, at least it told me ratings, unlike Alexa.
I was wonderfully impressed by how Google Home and the voice bot helped me make some travel plans. For my European trip, I asked the Assistant how to say several phrases in German, like where is the bathroom and how do you find the airport. Amazingly, the bot says the phrases with a slight German accent. When I asked the Assistant to say the phrase again in Spanish, it worked. (I also tried Arabic, but that doesn’t work yet.) My only gripe is that I wanted the Assistant to be able to repeat the phrase a few times.
The Assistant is not perfect as a conversational device, though. When I asked for tips about flying to Europe, the bot said it didn’t understand the question. I’d prefer if it at least directed me a site for a few tips or added a link to the Google Home app. There are times when the Assistant balked. You’ll hear the phrase “Sorry, I don’t know how to help with that yet…” a few times. I was surprised when it didn’t understand a question about who will be the next President (it said it didn’t know). Also, when I asked about Donald Trump, the Assistant just read a Wikipedia entry. Seems like it has not read the news.
Meanwhile, Amazon Alexa balked on all of these queries. It only gave me a list of random pizza places but did not tell me anything about ratings. When I asked about domestic flights in the U.S. and Europe, the Amazon assistant said it did not understand me. The bot doesn’t speak other languages, although you can ask about how to say a phrase and it will drop the text translation onto the Alexa app. Alexa doesn’t understand context, so it won’t take follow-up questions like the Google Assistant.
In terms of sound quality, it’s no contest. The Home sounds much better than the Echo–it has deep bass and clear spoken audio. For such a small speaker, it can play quite loud. I even used the Home to control the Philips Hue light bulbs in my living room. I could say “OK, Google–turn the lights off…” and it worked perfectly.
I plan to use one in my office and maybe add two more, one for my living room (the Home can play YouTube videos on the Google Chromecast, although it won’t play movies stored in your Google Play library yet) and one for the kitchen (since it can read recipes to you). I’m extremely impressed with the searches, the music playback, and the design. Alexa is smarter for almost everything else, but that could easily change in the next few months.
