Google Home Update: New Features to Compete With Amazon Echo

By Amanda Solis, Christian Post Contributor Friday, May 19, 2017

Google has been trying to compete with Amazon Echo with its own smart speaker, Google Home, but has been falling behind when it comes to features. At the tech giant's annual developer conference, Google announced feature upgrades for the Google Home that would make it difficult for the Amazon Echo to compete with.

With the recent announcement that Amazon will be releasing a new Echo, Google had to take it up a notch with their Google Home. At Google I/O 2017, the company listed five feature upgrades for Google Home to make it more user-friendly. These upgrades include a more responsive Google Assistant, hands-free calling, additional music and video streaming choices, multiple device control, and a greater integration of Google Home with the user's TV.

Google is able to use its series of apps to create a better personal assistant for the Home. The voice-activated assistant will inform users of any information it can gather from various apps linked to the user's smartphone. The Home will also be able to make hands-free phone calls and it does not have to be to another Google Home user, unlike the Amazon Echo wherein users can only call other users of Echo devices.

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To increase viewing options, Google partnered up with Hulu and HBO Now; and for music options, they partnered up with Spotify and SoundCloud. Google Home users can stream these services directly to their TVs provided that they also have Google Chromecast.

The best feature upgrade that Google Home is to receive is the ability to control multiple devices at once. Users will be able to group together certain devices, which they would want to instruct at once. This makes life simpler for users since they won't have to say the same commands multiple times for several devices.

Google Home will also be expanding to Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. However, Google has not set a date for when the updates will be available and when exactly Google Home arrive in these new locations.