Google Now Enters Your Home But Will it Leave an Echo? The tech giant is all set to enter the Indian market with Google Home and Google Home Mini
By Nidhi Singh
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Undoubtedly, technology has made our life easier. In earlier times, everything was manual, from manually creating a calendar event to getting information on some query. Thanks to tech giants like Google and Amazon who have produced some amazing devices through which one can get most of their work done from bed.
The smart-voice controlled speakers from Amazon and Google can perform a whole range of tasks like playing music, looking up the weather, getting information and taking control of the smart home. Last year in October, Amazon announced the launch of Alexa assistant, along with the Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot devices in India on an invite-only basis. After few months, Google is all set to enter the Indian market with its smart speakers.Google Home and Google Home Mini are available on Flipkart for INR 9,999 and 4,499 respectively. Both devices are listed on the e-commerce site with the tagline 'Intelligence meets comfort' and the hashtag #MakeGoogleDoIt.
Multitask With Google Home :
The speakers enable users to speak voice commands to interact with services through Google's intelligent personal assistant called Google Assistant. A large number of services, both in-house and third-party, are integrated, allowing users to perform chores like listen to music, control playback of videos or photos, or receive news updates entirely by voice.
Up to six people can link their accounts to Google Home for personalized responses. Even if you're using Multi-user and Google Home will recognize your voice.The devices also have integrated support for home automation, letting users control smart home appliances with their voice. Multiple Google Home devices can be placed in different rooms in a home for synchronized playback of music.
Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Controversies from the past
Technology has taken a big space in our lives. We keep hearing about bugs popping up in a wide range of devices but the solution can't be distancing ourselves from technology.
Before its release, a major bug was discovered on some Google Home Mini devices, where "phantom input" on its touch-sensitive surface could be tapped to activate Assistant(feature) without using its associated voice command. This further caused Assistant to inadvertently activate on its own, resulting in unwanted voice recording. Later, Google disabled, and then permanently removed, the ability to activate Assistant by touch on Home Mini models due to privacy issues associated with the bug.
On the other hand, Amazon Echo had also attracted a lot of controversy in Global market. Amazon's Echo devices have been all over the news in past few days because some users have been complaining of Alexa's impromptu laughter. However, Amazon has confirmed that it's aware of the problem and is "working to fix it." The company also shared in a statement, "In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase "Alexa, laugh,' " Amazon said. To fix the issue, Amazon is disabling that command and changing the trigger phrase to "Alexa, can you laugh?."
The India launch of Google Home can stir up competition in the segment and give the likes of Amazon a tough fight. With the tough fight that the tech giants are putting up, it will be interesting to see the competition getting tougher in the coming days.
