Google Home Smart Speaker Launched: Price, Variants And Features
The smart home speaker from Google supports Google Assistant and a slew of apps like Gaana and Saavn.
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Google Home, Google’s smart assistant speaker, has finally been launched in India. The Home Mini has been priced at Rs 4,499, and the Home variant at Rs 9,999.
Both these devices will be available across different platforms, including Flipkart. The Home speaker is integrated with Google Assistant, which mostly relies on Google’s existing clout on data and content.
The Google Home speaker range globally includes Home Mini, Google Home and Home Max. But in India, we’re only getting the Home Mini and the Google Home.
These are positioned exactly like Amazon Echo Dot, Amazon Echo and Echo Plus, which start from around Rs 4,499. However, unlike Amazon’s Echo, you’d have to rely on apps like Gaana and Saavn for music, or subscribe to Google Play Music (Rs 89 per month) for direct access to Google’s music catalogue.
Google claims to have been working on localising the Assistant for India and its varied set of consumers.
It’s very easy to set up Google Home: Just download the Google Home app from Play Store and sync your Home device with the app. Then, connect the device and the app to the same Wi-Fi network, sign in with your Google ID, set up Google Assistant to your preference, and you’re good to go.
In comparison to Amazon focused on skills, Google is heavily relying on its core products like Maps, YouTube and Search that millions of Indian users already know about.
Smart speakers have shown their good as well as bad side, all in less than a year since its debut. Amazon had to figure out why Echo devices were laughing for no reason, and later ended up tweaking the settings for Alexa.
Alexa, Assistant and Siri are competing in a space that’s yet to find its true calling, but features like smart-enabled home and intelligent music companion have shown promise. Apple is still figuring out the direction for Siri, which barely made it to the footnote with the HomePod speaker.
With Google entering the smart speaker segment in India, it could become the next Google-Amazon battleground.
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