Zit Seng's Blog

A Singaporean's technology and lifestyle blog

A Google Home

I have a Google home. You see, everyone at home uses an Android smartphone. We have a couple of other Google stuff too, like a Chromebook and a Chromecast. Then, recently, a Google Home. Yes, that smart speaker thing like Amazon’s Echo.

Once upon a time, you could say that every home has at least one Sony product. Not anymore. Apple took over that title. It’s probably still true today that everyone would likely at least have one Apple product at home, but possibly, too, Google is making some inroads into homes.

Google Home was released in November last year, so it’s still a relatively new product. Also, Google has a penchant for not being aggressive in selling their products, so I don’t think Google Home will make much of a difference in the near future. But this is a new product category for Google, a category that Apple hasn’t yet has a product in, so they have a head start.

I will post a review in the near future. But for now, I wanted to share a “pro-tip”, particularly if you have other Android gadgets at home capable of responding to the cool “Okay, Google” thingy.

You see, my Google phone also responds to “Okay, Google” most of the time when I’m actually trying to get Google Home’s attention. The trick is to use the alternate trigger word, or words: “Hey, Google”. “Hey, Google” works with Google Home only, not with any other Google Now capable Android devices. The latter only responds to “Okay, Google”.

This is the way you can make sure your calls to Google Home won’t distress your Google gadgets.

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