【Dear Utol (2025): Kilay is Life Episode 42】

Starting on Dear Utol (2025): Kilay is Life Episode 42Nov. 4, Google's physical invasion of the home begins when consumers start installing Google Home, the company's Amazon Echo rival.

Google Home builds on what the Echo started and piles on Google Search, Google Cast, Google Assistant and many more of the company's services (plus the data it has collected about you) to create an even more personalized, automated and voice-controlled experience.

SEE ALSO: Google Home arrives in November and costs less than Amazon's Echo

Putting aside any creepy fears of having Google literally in your home, picking one or the other ultimately comes down to whatthey can do for you. God knows you're not buying the Echo or Home because you're lonely and need a friend to talk to (unless you are).

---

You May Also Like

---

---

Now that we know everything there is to know about Google Home, let us help you decide -- at least on paper -- which one might be the better digital home assistant for you.

Price

Let's start with price because, look, not everyone can afford both.

Google Home is cheaper than the Amazon Echo: $130 versus $180. Who doesn't like savings? But that's only if you compare the full-sized Echo to Home.

If you don't care about the better speaker in the Echo, you could easily save even more by buying the new Echo Dot, which is only $50.

Understanding your world

The Echo's Alexa voice assistant is smart, but it's not as smart as Home's Google Assistant. Though developers can connect their services and products to Alexa, she just doesn't really know a whole lot about you to provide truly contextual information.

Home, on the other hand, taps into a multitude of Google services that are rich with data that you've allowed the company access to. That includes traffic information from Google Maps based on your location, upcoming events from your Google Calendar and voice translation that's nearing human fluency with Google Translate.

Home's "My Day" feature is particularly powerful because it provides a summary of your day culled from all the data it collects. It looks like it'll make Google Assistant even more like a personal assistant than one that's only ready per command, making Alexa and Apple's Siri look dumb in comparison.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

And this is probably just the start. You can bet good money Google's planning to make the assistant even smarter once it can access your Gmail and more. Amazon's Echo simply can't compare.

Supported music services

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The most basic thing these two voice-controlled hubs do is play music from streaming music services. They're both pretty on par with one another. The Echo has access to Prime Music, Spotify (premium), Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio and Audible.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Google Home has YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora, Google Play Music and TuneIn.

Notice any service missing? Apple Music. Sure, you could pair your phone or computer to the Echo via Bluetooth, but you won't have access to Alexa to control it.

Google Home is worse, though. It doesn't support Bluetooth pairing (only Google Cast) and so you can't even stream Apple Music because it doesn't support the Google Cast protocol.

TV controls

Arguably one the biggest advantages of Home when it comes to connecting with third-party devices is built-in Google Cast support.

If your device is Google Cast-based, it'll work with Home. Which means you'll be able to stream audio to any speaker or beam video to any TV with built-in Google Cast (like Vizio's new televisions) or through a Chromecast Audio or Chromecast.

In one demo, Google showed how you could tell Home to play John Oliver videos and Home automatically switched to YouTube and played his videos. In another demo, a Google rep said "OK Google, play Stranger Thingson Netflix" and -- boom -- instant binging.

The Echo can't do that. It can control your TV to a certain extent if you jump through a bunch of loops by configuring your entertainment system to a Logitech Harmony Hub and then connecting it to Alexa using IFTTT, but that's a pain in the butt.

The only caveat is that Home can't actually control your TV itself; it's merely controlling Chromecast. So you won't be able to do things like change channels from your cable box or switch HDMI inputs using Google Assistant voice controls.

Connecting to the smart home

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

One of the best things about the Echo is that there's an API that lets companies integrate their services and products with Alexa.

To date there are over 3,000 Alexa "skills" from dozens and dozens of companies and more adding support every week. Where the Echo once only supported a handful of third-party smart home devices, it now connects with Philips Hue, Nest, WeMo, Wink, SmartThings, iDevices, Insteon, and more. And next year Sonos speakers will work with Alexa.

Google Home is starting with only five smart home integrations: Google Chromecast, Nest, Philips Hue, SmartThings and IFTTT. More will likely come in the future, but that could be awhile off.

Speaker quality

We'll have to get the Google Home into our own homes before we can make any real judgments on the audio quality.

Google says the Home is equipped with a "high excursion speaker for HiFi sound." In comparison, the Echo has 2.5 inch woofer and 2.0 inch tweeter.

Google Home volume controls, here's what it sounds like at full volume. pic.twitter.com/6ucne0n2qF

— Karissa Bell (@karissabe) October 4, 2016

While the Echo isn't the best-sounding speaker, it's plenty loud and clear for a room. Mashable Apps Reporter Karissa Bell, who was at the Google event, said Home "sounded pretty good" and that it "certainly wasn't worse than the Echo."

Customization

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The Echo comes in two colors: black or white. Google Home comes with a white top and a standard gray bottom, but you can swap out the bottoms with three different colored fabric designs or three metal designs.

If you need a splash more color, Home's the way to go. Or spray paint your Echo. (Do not recommend.)

Topics Amazon Google Google Assistant Google Home