Google Home went live this week, just a bit over a month before Christmas. For your folks or even your lazy brother, Home seems like a smart way to make life easier. Count on it to know the answer to all their existential questions and “fill” the house with music to their liking. But is it really the optimal tool to connect with your home devices? #objectmagic
At $129 (available to purchase from Google Store, Target, Walmart or Best Buy), Google Home is a couple of bucks cheaper than Amazon Echo. Its Assistant makes sure a user’s schedule and desires are its first priority. Your folks can talk to it to check their calendar, add items on their shopping list, dim the lights or play music according to their usual preferences. They can count on it on games night, too; the Assistant can easily verify whose answers are right.
As savvy as Google Home is, it doesn’t connect to a large variety of home services. For now, it’s able to change the temperature in the house via Nest and it could expand its range of controls with Samsung’s SmartThings hub. But don’t expect it to open the garage door or read books to your children too soon.
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