Google Home is an affordable smart speaker powered by the Google Assistant that makes controlling home devices, playing music, podcasts and audiobooks simple and convenient.
Like Amazon’s Echo, Google Home can answer questions and set reminders. Furthermore, it can make phone calls as well as activate video doorbells or security cameras.
Voice control
Google Home max white can recognize your voice request instantly and act upon it instantly – playing music and podcasts, answering weather and traffic inquiries, providing sports scores information, or controlling smart home devices.
It also amplifies phone calls, making it easy to continue conversations throughout your home. Plus, using Google Home app, it is possible to pair additional Google Assistant speakers together and sync audio playback.
When multiple Google Home devices are present in a home, you can ask Google Home devices to broadcast messages (for instance “OK, Google, broadcast that breakfast is ready” or “OK, Google, broadcast that dinner is served”) as well as set routines for going to sleep, leaving/arriving home and entertainment (“OK Google, play a Spotify playlist” or “OK Google, turn on TV”). Furthermore, you can specify which speaker should be used for hands-free calling.
Music playback
Google Home makes an ideal music playback assistant, accessing your preferred streaming service such as Spotify, YouTube Music or Pandora and playing your playlists, albums, artists or radio stations.
Google Home can shuffle music based on genre, adjust bass and treble settings via its app, stream audio through Chromecast devices and play local media files hosted on a PC with Plex.
Speaker groups allow synchronized playback across multiple speakers – perfect for parties and when you want everyone in the house listening to the same tunes!
Google Home’s machine learning features can occasionally cause it to malfunction. Rebooting usually fixes these issues; for instance, when your device doesn’t hear correctly or says something it shouldn’t – both problems which thankfully happen far less often than with Amazon Echo devices.
Control of smart home devices
Google Home, like other smart speakers, is compatible with an array of interconnected devices. Some may work directly with it while others require a hub or bridge device as an intermediary solution. You can use the Google Home app to keep tabs on all these interlinked devices.
Google Earth can also serve as an excellent information resource, giving access to its vast database. Simply enquiring the amount of time it would take for someone to arrive at Charles Darwin’s house will elicit an insightful reply that includes options by car or public transit.
Attracting Google Assistant’s attention can provide more tailored service that fits into your routines, like playing your favourite tunes or setting alarms with one command. Plus, it can control connected TVs, Chromecast devices, smart thermostats and printers plus set up routines which run multiple automated processes at the same time – saving both time and effort in daily household management tasks.
Alarms
Alarms are one of the standout features of Google Assistant smart speakers. Setting an alarm with just a voice command is easy and you can also set recurring ones – for instance if your medication needs to be taken every morning at 7 AM then simply say: “Hey Google, set an alarm for 7 AM tomorrow”.
Music can also serve as an alarm clock – simply request that Google play a song/playlist as your alarm and you should wake up to something musical! However, keep in mind that using music as your alarm could grow tiresome quickly if used too often as an alarm.
If you’re having difficulty waking up, try snoozing your alarm for more than 10 minutes by saying, “Hey Google, snooze my alarm for [time/duration].” Or set one on your phone! Forgetful? To check any active alarms or timers you might have set using Google Home app by tapping Settings icon then selecting device with alarm or timer set go off again, tap Settings icon then device name from drop down list in Google Home app Settings icon then selecting which device has alarm or timer set off.
Andrew Parker