Who needs text chat? HipChat debuts link to Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant

As is usual with a new product category gaining entries from various companies, the decision rests exclusively on personal preference of which company each user believes will deliver the best experience, and iterate most consistently down the line. Now, it is a time for the relationship with Google Home. The problem is, I’ve already invested in three Amazon Echo units and, in some ways, have picked the Apple ecosystem over Android (for whatever reason, I still buy all of my movies on Google Play.) My Echo devices work well enough, and I can’t think of a good reason to spend $390 on three Google Home units to replace what I already own.

So. You might be wondering if you should buy the Google Home.

“This new capability is both practical and fun for our users”, says Renee Niemi, general manager of the smart home business at Logitech.

Buck Wise, an advertising executive in Portland, Oregon, tried several variants of smart home systems, but said the Echo worked best for him because of the hands-free speaker. Although Alexa wasn’t able to give me walking directions to my local Target, it was still able to tell me where it’s located and how many miles away it is from my home. A voice command from the user for any track available in Amazon’s library will be sensed by Alexa and then played. Many things that would require you to install additional skills on a device powered by the Amazon Alexa, are supported by default on Google Home. However, most people agree that the two appear to get the job done at least as well as Echo’s eight.The company has also done a great job of hardwiring the “Ok Google” command into the speaker.

If you do spring for multiple Google Home speakers, you can set them up, via the app, to play the same music in multiple rooms. You can easily replace the grill with separately purchased colored fabric and metal grills (Mango, Marine or Violet for fabric; Carbon, Copper or Snow for metal). Aaron Bromberg, a senior product manager for Fire tablets, said that while such devices work well as laptop replacements, “we also see an very bad lot of people that want tablets to use around the house for entertainment”. You can also change the volume through a touch panel at the top of the device. Move your finger clockwise or counterclockwise to increase or decrease the volume.

Google Home does everything as like the Amazon Echo in the music streaming options. Home supports Spotify and Pandora, but I set it to rely on Google’s own Google Play and YouTube services. These are small programs or scripts that allow her to talk to smart home devices from a whole host of vendors including TP-Link, Belkin, D-Link, and even Nest.

But before we start calling it an Echo killer, let’s take a close look at how it actually handles voice and service commands.

It’s key to remember Google Assistant is still a nascent product with limited third-party apps.

Home’s much-touted conversational assistance means you can ask follow-up questions without having to repeat previously established information.

That’s the way that Wired began its review for Google Home, which it says can sometimes feel “like sci-fi magic”, and other times is simply unreliable.

In terms of appearance, Google Home fits more naturally into the living room than Amazon’s Echo. But Echo and its Alexa voice recognition software have since become a sleeper hit, with an estimated 3 million gadgets sold as of April, according to research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. But, not with Amazon Echo. People can able to add the items to the shopping list over voice, but it can’t be able to remove the items by using voice control.

You can purchase Google Home on the released date for a price of $129.

The Amazon’s Echo Alexa reads Dump Dinners: The Absolute Best Dump Dinners Cookbook with 75 Amazingly Easy Recipes to the user anytime.

While the Google Home is constrained by the Assistant’s lack of integrations, it’s still pretty smart.

Does your home really need a “smart speaker” that can answer questions, call you an Uber, turn off the lights or play music when you ask?