Google I/O: Google Home

Google's answer to the Amazon's home assistant, Echo, is the Google Home. It is a very nice looking device particularly with the LEDs on top.

Google Home is be released later this year, two years after Amazon's Echo limited release. While Amazon has built up a good amount of traction to Amazon's assistant platform Alexa over the past two years, I don't expect Google having any trouble catching up.

First of all, Google has much more personal data than Amazon has. This was a limitation of the Alexa; most of the requests are more general and public (e.g. play music, check weather, simple searches). But since Google is used by most people, whether that be Google Photos, search, or GMail, Google Home's use-cases can go so much further. You can ask about your schedule for the day without having to do any connecting.

Personalization will be critical for Google Home's success. Unlike Amazon, Google has voice data on many of its users. With that information, Google Home can respond dynamically to users based on the person's voice. On the Amazon Echo, you have to tell it to switch profiles. If Google Home can detect the user based on the voice, manual switching profiles won't be need; this would be the feature that makes Amazon Alexa obsolete.

After some research, it looks like Google Home won't support multiple accounts initially. I think this is a big mistake, but you have to start somewhere. The platform will not be open to developers at the start as well. Both of these will render the initial growth of Google Home, but I'm sure this will change not much after release.

One of Google Home's advantages will be the technology behind it. Google has been building its Knowledge Graph and natural language processing for years; probably longer than any other company. So naturally, Google will probably be able to handle more requests than Amazon's Alexa can (even without third party applications).

Google Home will have native integration with Chromecast. Over 25 million Chromecasts have been sold, there many TVs that come with Chromecast functionality, and Chromecast Audio was released last year. Google Home will be useful to all those users. You'll be able to play anything content compatible with Chromecast including YouTube, Play Music, Netflix, and HBO Go, using Google Home. Amazon Alexa is able to control the less popular Fire TV.

As I wrote previously, one of the greatest challenges of voice is adoption and knowing what users can ask (hopefully anything and everything eventually). Google Home has high potential, but it'll be about execution. Google has some good history with products like Search, Gmail, Flight, Android, Chromecast, and Photos. But then you have products like Google+, Wave, Q, its numerous TV devices, and Answers. I hope Google Home will be the home assistant/hub we need.