The Set-Up

We Show You How To Set Up A Key Piece Of Connected-home Tech. This Month… Google Home.

GOOGLE IS COMING TO YOUR HOME – IN STYLE

YOU MAY HAVE TO IMPORT ONE BUT, TRUST US, GETTING GOOGLE HOME IS WELL WORTH IT…

The voice-controlled speaker market is heating up. Amazon Echo continues to make strides, and now Google Home, a voice-controlled 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 here just yet (though you can import it from the US), 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 may change when the device officially launches, but until then, 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.