Google Home
Google Home speakers enable users to speak voice commands to interact with services through their intelligent personal assistant called Google Assistant. A large number of services, both in-house and third-party, are integrated, allowing users to listen to music, look at videos or photos, or receive news updates entirely by voice. Google Home devices also have integrated support for home automation features, letting users speak commands to the devices to control smart home appliances. Multiple Google Home devices can be placed in different rooms in a home for synchronized playback of music, and an update in April 2017 brought multi-user support, allowing up to six people to engage with the device. The original product has a cylindrical shape with 10 LEDs on the top for visual representation of its status, and the cover over the base is modular, with different color options offered through Google Store intended for the device to blend into the environment. In May 2017, Google announced multiple updates to Google Home’s functionality, including free hands-free phone calling in the United States and Canada, proactive updates ahead of scheduled events, visual responses on mobile devices or Chromecast-enabled televisions, Bluetooth audio streaming, the ability to schedule calendar appointments and the ability to set reminders.