Google was a bit late to the digital home assistant game with Google Home, which came years after the launch of Amazon’s Echo devices. But since Home’s introduction, the search giant has made a lot of progress. On Monday, Google announced a new feature that lets you broadcast your voice from almost any phone or Google Home speaker.
The new feature, which begins rolling out today on Android and iOS devices and Google Home devices in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and U.K. in English, lets you broadcast your voice to Google Assistant-compatible speakers in your house. You send a message directly from your smartphone via the Google Assistant, or from another speaker like Google Home or Google Home Mini. Just say, “OK Google, broadcast,” followed by the message you’d like to send, and that’s it. You can say something like, “OK Google, broadcast I’m on my way home” just as you leave your office, for example, so that your friends and family members know how long it’ll be before you get home.
It’s similar to Amazon’s Alexa-powered broadcasts, which rolled out in June, and it’s a fantastic feature. Broadcast messages add an untold level of convenience if you already have multiple AI-powered speakers throughout the house. And with the debut of affordable smart home speakers like the Google Home Mini and Amazon Echo Dot, it’s becoming less expensive than ever before to outfit every room with one.
Google might be closely following Alexa’s lead, but it won’t challenge its dominance anytime soon. According to eMarketer, Alexa holds an 82% share of the overall smart speaker market. Some users and reviewers prefer Google Home’s versatility, but while it has the benefit of Google’s Knowledge Graph, it lags behind Amazon in terms third-party support. In July, the numbers of applications in the Alexa app store surpassed 15,000.
Source: The Keyword
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