T3 HOME

Each issue, we show you how to set up a key piece of connected-home tech. This month… GOOGLE HOME YOU MAY HAVE TO IMPORT ONE BUT, TRUST US, GETTIN G GOOGLE HOME IS WELL WORTH IT…

Discover all the details of Google Home (and how to set it up). Plus, a new stylish speaker from B&O, the ultimate objects of desire, and your questions answered by experts in our Smart Home Surgery

The voice- controlled speaker market is heating up. Amazon Echo continues to make strides, and now Google Home, a voicecontrolled device in the same vein as the Amazon Echo, but with the advantage of having access to Google search, is here. As with Echo, you can control a range of smart home devices and play music via Spotify and Google Play Music. You can also control connected Chromecasts around your house, meaning you can ask Google Home to play something on your TV without you having to lift a finger (or a remote).

Google Home hasn’t officially launched in the UK just yet, so the services attached to it aren’t as wide-ranging as those linked to Amazon Echo. For instance, while Amazon’s Alexa app enables you to control all manner of smart home devices – from Netatmo thermostats to Philips Hue lighting and more – Google Home only enables control of Hue and Nest. This will undoubtedly change when the device officially launches in the UK, but it’s something for early adopters to bear in mind.

The device itself is more compact than Amazon Echo and looks a little like an air freshener or a small vase. The base can be swapped out, too, enabling you to change the colour to suit your living space. And because of its diminutive nature, while its speaker is decent enough it’s not as powerful as Amazon’s offering. However, you can hook up a few Google Homes for a multi-room audio system – something you can’t do with Echo.

Anyway, let’s discuss the search function, because this is where Google Home excels. Whereas for more obscure questions Amazon Echo typically responds with an “I’m Sorry, I don’t know how to answer that”, Google Home will pull the top search result from Google and read it aloud to you. So out of the box it’s a great device for quickly finding answers to questions without you having to dive into the app – as with Echo – and add new skills. It soon becomes second nature to quickly ask Google Home a fact.

Yes it’s currently more hassle to import Home from the US, but the effort is worth it.