The Google Assistant is an artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistantdeveloped by Google that is primarily available on mobile and smart home devices. Unlike the company’s previous virtual assistant, Google Now, the Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations.

Google Home 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 listen to music, control playback of videos or photos, or receive news updates entirely by voice.

The original product has a cylindrical shape with colored status LEDs on the top for visual representation of its status, and the cover over the base is modular, with different color options offered through Google Storeintended for the device to blend into the environment. In October 2017, Google announced two additions to the product lineup, the Google Home Mini and the Google Home Max.

Google home mini

Get hands-free help in any room with Google Home Mini. It’s powered by the Google Assistant. You can ask it questions. Tell it to do things. It’s your own personal Google.

Price-$49

Googe home max

If you’ve held out for a high-end smart speaker that supports Google Assistant, and you’re against the low-sonic prowess of the Google Home, Google Home Mini or Chromecast Audio, the Google Home Max could be your next best friend.

PRICE-$399

Generally,

Google Home 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.

Home also uses Bluetooth to sync up to other devices – a feature the Home’s competitor, Amazon Echo, has had since it launched and had so far been strangely absent on Google’s smart speaker.

Design

Now, because “air freshener” can be a varied description depending on where you are in the world, a more apt description of its shape might be a small vase – it has a wide bottom and a tapered top. Each Google Home comes with a standard, gray fabric base with a rubber bottom.

Amazon Echo comparing to Google Home

While Amazon’s Echo has a physical control to change its volume, Google Home’s touch controls feel less precise. We do however appreciate the inclusion of a physical button to mute the speaker, which means you can be sure when it is, and is not, listening.

Google Home generally does ok job of picking up your voice with its two built-in microphones located on the top half of the chassis, but it doesn’t work 100% of the time. Whether this is down to Google’s software, or its reliance on two microphones rather than the Amazon Echo’s five, it means you’ll definitely end up repeating yourself or raising your voice to get its attention more.

Audio performance

While Google Assistant, the voice and smarts inside the speaker, might be the main attraction here, Google Home is actually a pretty capable audio device as well.

It can access all sorts of streaming services – Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Spotify and Pandora – and works as a Wi-Fi speaker thanks to its built-in Google Cast capabilities.