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Perhaps you may be wondering if there is a monthly fee that you will be charged when you get Google Home. Or maybe you have already made a decision and bought one already, either the Google Smart Speaker or Smart displays, and you now want to know what to do next.
There is no monthly fee that is charged when you use Google Home. All you need to have is a free Google account, and you start using Google Home on your smartphone to set up Google Home. You can also use the free version of Spotify, TuneIn, etc.
Below, I will familiarize you with all the basics of Google Home and then dive into everything that you need to know at once you have your Google Home up and running. There are some flaws that I will also have a look at and then show you what is next for Google’s smart home.
Perhaps you may not be sure if you want to use Google Home. I can help with that too; there is Amazon Echo or perhaps Apple HomePod. I have written a breakdown on the BEST smart speakers here that will help you to get started on it.
Build Your Smart Home
I have also put together a detailed e-book on how you can build your smart home from the ground up covering everything that you need to know if you are new and also advanced. This resource will lessen the burden on you. You can get it here.
What is Google Home?
Google Home is a brand of smart speakers that were developed by Google. These smart speakers enable the users to speak voice commands so that they interact with services through Google Assistant, Google’s virtual assistant.
Google Home devices also have an integrated support hat enables home automation that allows the users to control their smart home appliances using their voice.
The connectivity of Google Home is wi-fi dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) 802.11b/g/ac and the dimensions of Google Home are: Home; 96.4 mm (3.80 in) diameter, 142.8 mm (5.62 in ) high. The Google Home Mini dimensions are 98 mm (3.86 in) diameter, 42 mm (1.65 in) high. Google Home Max dimensions are 336.6 mm (13.25 in) wide, 190 mm (7.48 in) high. The mass of Google Home is 477g, the mass of Google Home Mini is 173g, and the mass of Google Home Max is 5300g.
To know the best smart assistant for every need, I have put together this article here that will help you to get all the details.
Why Was Google Home Built?
These smart speaker from the eponymous search giant was designed to compete with another popular Amazon Echo. Though Google Home can still play music, but its primary purpose is to be a vehicle for Google Assistant, Google voice-activated virtual helper which is connected to the internet. The Google Assistant which we access on the Google Home is the same one we access in recent android phones like Google Pixel 3A.
Which Google Home Speaker Should You Buy?
Google has three smart speakers, as you would have already noticed. Google assistant first debuted in the original Google Home. Then we have the Google Home Mini which squeezes all the smarts of these original Google Home into a smaller version that is a more affordable version. Then we have the Google Home Max, this Google’s smart speaker that is designed to produce premium sound.
All of the above smart speakers give you access to the same Google Assistant service. The only difference they have is the size, price, and sound quality. They all use the same Google Home App, and they also respond to the same wake words.
Some people say that Google Home is always recording the environment, but that is not true. Google Home is always listening to the environment, but it cannot start recording or even respond to any commands that you give it until you speak one of the preprogrammed wake words. The wake words include “OK, Google” or “Hey, Google.” There are many other commands that you can use to give Google Home.
Is Music Free on Google Home?
When you have Google Home, you get to access free YouTube music, that is if you don’t mind the ads. Youtube music offers a free, ad-supported experience on Google Home speakers and all the Google Assistant-powered speakers. The premium subscribers can also request specific songs, artists, and playlists on-demand.
You can get the Google Play Music App for free. It is downloadable from the Google Play store and does not have a subscription. You are able to purchase songs on a one-off basis and also use it to manage audio that you have on your smartphone or tablet.
You may also opt to use Media Player Pro here, it offers wonderful video and audio playback combined with the most powerful features you will need.
Is Google Home or Alexa Better?
Google Home and Alexa are not just mere speakers; they are platforms. They are the gateway to a voice assistant ecosystem. When you choose either of the two, you are choosing a side to either voice-enable your home with Google Assistant or with Alexa.
Although Google Assistant is better when you are handling the free form web-based queries when you compare to Alexa. Alexa leans heavily on Wikipedia to get the general knowledge queries, and it is also a stickler for wording and particular sequences of words while Google Assistant uses Googles search that is more comprehensive.
Though Alexa has been the best choice for a long time because of some few advantages like the ability to use multiple wake words. But over the past few years, there has been overturned by Google Home as they have become less expensive.
Alexa and Google Home now let you make outbound calls to regular phones. Google Home devices cannot receive calls though echo devices can receive calls from other Echos and they can receive calls from a home phone line when you have Echo Connet box. Google Assistant is still catching up on third-party skills like ordering pizzas and uber.
The good thing about both Google Assistant and Alexa is that they both let you combine your smart home devices into rooms so that you can say command words that enable you to combine multiple actions to one command.
The smart home gap that existed between Alexa and Google Assistant is now closed. The nest is owned by Google, and Google is cutting all access to Alexa while blink and ring are owned by Amazon, so all the blink and ring devices only work with Alexa.
How Much Does Google Home Assistant Cost?
Google Home after it was revealed by Google, it became Google’s answer to Amazon Echo, and the price they put to it is what makes them loved. Google Home Mini smart speaker comes at a price under $49 for the two-pack with free shipping. Google Home smart speaker comes for under $100 list price while the Google Home Max smart speaker comes for under $300.
Can You Listen to Google Home?
When you have everything on Google Home setup, you may also want to listen to music. Goggle Home smart speaker can be used just like other ordinary Bluetooth speakers, and you can pull up the song you want to listen to on the phone.
You can also go a notch higher and use your voice to tell Google Home the song you want to hear. Even if you cannot remember the song, you can search using the lyrics. The good news is that it will pull songs from various streaming services like Spotify, youtube, Pandora, and google play music.
Google Assistant can also be used to play music on TV if the TV is Chromecast enabled. You can also ask google home to play your favorite TV show using the various streaming services that are available HBO and Netflix.
LG company recently announced that they have several TVs that have google assistant built-in. The only thing you have to do is to push a button on the remote, and you give a command. The first company to offer such a service was Sony. Samsung is the next to launch such services.
Conclusion
Now you are up to date with the current state of Google Home. In the past, many people thought Alexa was the superior ecosystem, not until Google Home came in 2016. At the moment, we think that Google Assistant has the edge to Alexa, especially when we are just talking about smart speakers.
Google Assistant is considered to be more flexible and has a better natural language processor, and you can upload your own music there on the Google Play library. So if you are looking for a smart speaker right now, I am leaning in the Google Home direction. But the gap is so close enough; you can go either way, especially if you have some smart home products that are compatible with Alexa already.
If you would like to be up to date with all new and rapidly growing smart home trends, I have put together a resource that will give you all these information in one document. You can get access to it here if you like.