'OK Google' Wireless Speaker Is Just OK

Google Home, the search giant’s new connected wireless speaker, is more attractive and sounds better than the Alexa-powered Amazon Echo, but the Google Assistant cloud service that backs it still needs a lot of work.

- Sascha Segan

It’s not yet up to Amazon’s standards, including basic functions such as playing music as well as the hundreds of third-party skills now integrated in Amazon’s cloud assistant.

There’s plenty of potential and room for growth in the future, but this is Alexa’s world right now. If all you want is a voice-controlled Google Play Music and Spotify speaker, Google Home looks and sounds better than the Echo for $50 less. Otherwise, hold off on buying it until at least after the holidays, when it will become clear if the voice assistant is going to get the upgrades and third-party support it needs to be competitive.

DESIGN AND SETUP

Google Home is an attractive gourd-shaped speaker with a removable woven base that comes in seven different colors. It’s 3.79 inches in diameter and 5.62 inches tall, and it weighs about a pound. Google Home looks like an ornamental candle, and thanks to the fabric base and various color options, it’ll fit much more easily into a range of home decor than Amazon’s somewhat utilitarian-looking black or white Echo speakers (even the smaller Echo Dot and Amazon Tap at Amazon aren’t particularly attractive). Google Home has only has one physical button, which toggles the always-on microphone. Otherwise, the top is a touch surface you can tap to pause music or stroke to turn volume up or down.

You set up the speaker by loading the Google Home app on your Android or iOS phone. It’ll connect the speaker to your home Wi-Fi and let you define your home’s location (for weather and traffic). From then on, you can “cast” music from your phone to the speaker, or you can just say “OK Google” to activate the speaker’s voice assistant and get things going.