Google Home speaker review: leading the pack again

Gemini did a pretty good job with more conversational commands, though you still need to be specific with some of the commands. For example, my three-story house has two floors Smart thermostatsOne for the upper floor and one for the lower two floors. I asked to turn on the air conditioner, which Gemini did immediately, but he didn’t ask me which one and decided it was time for the air conditioner to come on upstairs. It was also set to eco mode, so I had to ask for the thermostats to be set to 75 degrees instead of the high 70s. However, I managed to casually say, “Can you set the temperature in the living room to 75 degrees, and upstairs too?” This has been applied to both smart thermostats.

Gemini Live is another way to talk to your Google Home speaker (which is only available on some older devices). You’ll tell the speaker, “Hey Google, let’s talk,” and it will activate a conversation mode that will talk back and forth with you about any topics you bring up. I had a back-and-forth conversation with Jiminy about my 3-year-old’s sleep schedule, how to treat a sunburn on your scalp (you’ll never guess what you got this weekend), and she asked about the recap of last night’s episode of Love Island (Although Gemini didn’t have a synopsis yet for the episode that premiered a few hours ago.)

Jiminy also asked follow-up questions with each topic to keep the conversation going, but would change direction on any topic I brought up. It works as intended, but I’m not sure how useful it is in a home context, as you’re more likely to use something like this on your smartphone. It’s not my favorite way to learn or discuss new information, but audio learners might really like it.

I was excited to ask Gemini what he sees around the house via my Google account Security camerasBut the experience did not impress me as much as I had hoped. Time and time again, I asked questions like if the car was in the garage, and Gemini said either he didn’t have access to that information or I needed to upgrade my subscription level to get the answer (you need Google Home Advanced).

Echo chamber

Photo: Nina Farrell

Google and Amazon He made the same move at about the same time: A new compact smart speaker that promises the sound quality of larger speakers, and retails for $100. Smaller speakers like previous Echo Dot models and Google Home Mini They were very popular because they could fit anywhere, whether it was on a cluttered shelf or tucked away in the corner of the kitchen, but they were also much cheaper.