Google Home Black Friday Deals

[Haywood]

The Google Home Mini is marked down to $29 and the Google Home is marked down to $79. They also have the regular Chromecast marked down to $19 and the Chromcast Ultra is down to $64.

I'm going to try replacing my Echo Dot with a Google Home Mini, because of the integration with Google Play Music, YouTube Music, Google Cast and Android TV. I can close the home automation gap with a $25 SmartThings dongle for my NVidia Shield. I'll let you guys know how it works out.

 

[jomari]

i dont know what im getting into but google home mini you mentioned is on sale at

Best buy - 29 bucks PLUS a ten dolla gift card,

Target - same thing, 20 bucks plus ten dolla gift card

i went with best buy, for the dark grey one. my home is not smart, but will try to use it for the weather etc.

 

[yromj]

Jomari,

Great start to a long and twisted BUT FUN road (sound familiar on this forum?). IMHO, an easy next step is to add a lighting control device. Enjoy!

John

 

[jomari]

thanks yromj,

i dont know about the lighting control device yet, ive seen tons of them, but i dont see a need right now. unless i cant see it yet.

again, a big door will be opened when we start learning how to use it.

thank horus for youtube.

 

[Haywood]

Here are my thoughts so far about the Echo Dot vs the Google Home Mini

Setup

• Very similar across both platforms
• Mobile device centric
• Quirky
• Annoying to get working with the Harmony Hub

Music Features

• Both work with Pandora, Spotify, iHeart Radio, etc.
• Echo works with Amazon Music
• Home works with Google Play music and YouTube Music
• Echo plays through other speakers via Bluetooth
• Home plays through other speakers via Chromecast Audio and Chromecast
  • Less convenient than Bluetooth, due to the need for a separate device
  • More powerful than Bluetooth, due to multi-room, multi-zone capability
  • Offers the option of casting music to any Chromecast enabled TV

Video Features

• Echo controls Fire TV
• Home controls Android TV
• Echo can also cast Google Play Video, YouTube and Netflix directly to Chromecast

Personal Assistant

• Both devices can integrate with your calendar and to-do lists
• Both devices can make phone calls via your mobile device
• Both devices support multiple profiles
  • Amazon requires a command to switch between profiles
  • Home answers questions and performs actions based on voice recognition
    • I have not fully tested this
    • In theory, I will get my schedule if I ask and Lisa will get her's if she asks
    • I am not sure how this works with play lists and subscriptions yet

Home Automation

• Echo has a better voice interface for controlling things
• Echo has a better microphone array
• Echo directly controls more things without needing a smart hub
  
• Both devices work with SmartThings and other home automation hubs
• Home is better at answering questions, because it runs on the Google Assistant AI
  
• Home is more conversational and allows for follow up questions, which Echo does not do as well
• Home directly controls fewer devices, but is catching up quickly
• Home has the annoying habit of telling you what commands it is sending where

I am still fiddling with the Home and getting used to it, but my early impression is that they are pretty similar devices and that the choice between them should probably be based more on preferred services than anything else. If you are a big Amazon person with Fire TV and Amazon Music, the Echo is the only option that makes sense. If you are a big Google user with subscriptions YouTube Red, YouTube TV, Google Play Music, etc., the Home makes a lot more sense.

 

[Flint]

• Home is more conversational and allows for follow up questions, which Echo does not

Explain this difference. I do follow-up questions all the time with Echo. the only thing which makes it less conversational than with a person is that have to say "Alexa" with every question. But, Alexa remembers the context of the prior answers to fill in missing context to get new answers. I tested this with a series of questions about Abraham Lincoln awhile ago and posted the results on the forum. I used Google Assistant, Cortana, and Alexa and Alexa was the only one which allowed me to ask a series of ten questions where after the first question I didn't need to keep repeating the context.

 

[Haywood]

Explain this difference. I do follow-up questions all the time with Echo. the only thing which makes it less conversational than with a person is that have to say "Alexa" with every question. But, Alexa remembers the context of the prior answers to fill in missing context to get new answers. I tested this with a series of questions about Abraham Lincoln awhile ago and posted the results on the forum. I used Google Assistant, Cortana, and Alexa and Alexa was the only one which allowed me to ask a series of ten questions where after the first question I didn't need to keep repeating the context.

Thanks for pointing that out. I re-wrote that stuff a few times and accidentally truncated my statement. It has now been corrected to, "which Echo does not do as well."

I found that I had to restate my question less frequently with the Google Assistant than I did with Alexa. It was a subjective observation, because I did not do a side-by-side comparison. It may be connected with the fact that Google Assistant did a better job finding information on the internet than Alexa did, at least in my time with it thus far.

I do not have a strong preference for one device over another. The Echo was great, other than not supporting our Google services. I didn't want to give up YouTube Red or pay for a second music subscription, so going with the Home made sense. The Echo is still in the house, it was just moved to the master bedroom, where it is mostly used for things like alarms, lighting control, thermostat control and streaming Pandora.