Remember when Amazon released its own smart speaker called Echo? Well, said speaker has finally received a competitor as Google has unveiled the Google Home during the Google I/O keynote.
Slated for release later this year, Google Home is a speaker that comes with always-listening, far-field microphones that Google claims could hear you from across the room. Appearance-wise, the Google Home is a rather compact thing that comes with LED lights as well as a modular case that can be customised with different base shells.
While the device seems portable, this device must be plugged into a power source for it to work. That said, Google Home is a rather ambitious device by itself. For one, the device can communicate with any other Chromecasts you have in your house because the device utilises basic Cast standard. Assuming that you have other Chromecasts located around your house, you’ll be able to control that device through Google Home via voice through the built-in Google Assistant feature.
In the event that you have multiple devices that are connected to a Chromecast, the Google Home will effectively double as a pseudo smart home hub, allowing you to control your televisions or speakers through the Google Home itself.
One drawback that the Google Home will have is that the Google will not be opening up a developer API for both the Google Home or Google Assistant just yet. For now, Google Home will work with a smaller set of home automation devices. Once they’re done tuning the device though, Google may decide to release an API for the Home.
