Smart home devices are largely hit or miss for me. When they work, I love almost everything about them. I have a Fire TV in my spare room with Alexa voice controls built in that let me easily swap over to different HDMI inputs and turn the TV on and off. These short and simple commands never give me any trouble, and I use them far more than I initially expected to. It’s actually my favorite thing about the TV, and voice controls like this would be enough to push an otherwise unremarkable TV into something I’d recommend.
Unfortunately, my experience with voice controls has been up and down across other devices. While my Fire TV understands and does what I want it to do, my Google Home Mini in my bedroom is another thing entirely. I don’t ask much of it. I have it turn my lights on and off, have it play music from Spotify here and there, and I ask it some questions when I don’t feel like grabbing my phone from my bedside table. I’ve done this for several years, and I’m still not sure if I’d recommend it to anyone. I also can’t imagine going back to life without it.
5/5
The Google Home isn’t perfect, but I forgive it
It’s close enough
My Google Home Mini is a lot like a sports team that I support, but they just never get over the hump. Living in Detroit, that can apply to several teams, but that’s a discussion for another day. The point is, you just keep rooting for the little device, but there are bumps in the road. When I walk into my bedroom, the first thing I do is ask it to turn on my lights. I often have to say it multiple times for it to register that I’m even talking to it. The same problem happens when I go to turn them off. There are sometimes where lights randomly disconnect from my Google Home app completely, and I have to go through the process of getting them connected to it again. Like many smart home devices, when they work, they work. It’s great when that happens, but it’s not a perfect process.
When I want to listen to music, most of the time it’s as simple as telling it the artist or playlist I want to listen to, and it automatically knows I want to listen on Spotify. Unfortunately, there are also times when it’ll take what I said and do something entirely different than what I intended. For the life of me, I can’t understand why this happens, and it’s something that persists across many devices, not just my Google Home Mini. I don’t want to sound like I’m unfairly singling out the Google Home, but it’s the device I interact with the most, so it’s where a lot of problems lie.
The thing is, I just can’t imagine going back to a world where I don’t have this little Google Home Mini next to me at night. I have a greyhound that takes up way too much of the bed, and it’d be annoying to both him and me to have to get up and turn off the lights manually, so that’s a big load off my shoulders, as strange as it sounds. I know it’s not essential to my lifestyle, but since I don’t rely on it for hours a day, I’m willing to put up with the problems. If it were something I use all the time, like my phone, then I would’ve started looking for a replacement. Another problem could be the age of the device. The Google Home Mini is no longer in production, and although it has Gemini support, I would get a better experience with something like the Google Home Nest. I have one of those in my kitchen, and it’s a big difference over the little hub I have in my bedroom. It’s a lot easier to have a conversation with the Nest, but I also ask a lot more questions while cooking than I do in my bedroom.
QuizGoogle Home products
Trivia challenge
From smart speakers to Nest devices — how well do you really know the Google Home ecosystem?
HardwareFeaturesHistorySmart HomeNest
In what year did Google first launch the original Google Home smart speaker?
Correct! Google Home made its debut in November 2016, going on sale shortly after being announced at Google I/O earlier that year. It was Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo, which had launched two years prior.
Not quite. The original Google Home launched in November 2016. Google used that year’s I/O developer conference to reveal the device before it went on sale in the autumn.
Which of the following Google Home devices features a built-in display?
Correct! The Google Nest Hub (originally called the Google Home Hub) features a touchscreen display, making it ideal for watching videos, viewing recipes, and controlling smart home devices visually. It launched in 2018.
Not quite. The Google Nest Hub is the device in the lineup that includes a built-in touchscreen display. The others are audio-only smart speakers without any screen.
What is the wake word used to activate Google Home and Nest smart speakers?
Correct! ‘Hey Google’ (along with the older ‘OK Google’) is the wake phrase that activates Google’s smart speakers and Assistant-enabled devices. It listens passively for this phrase before sending audio to Google’s servers.
Not quite. The correct wake phrase is ‘Hey Google’ — though ‘OK Google’ also works. These trigger the Google Assistant on Home and Nest devices and have been standard since the original Google Home launched.
Google acquired Nest Labs, the smart home company behind the Nest thermostat, in which year?
Correct! Google acquired Nest Labs in January 2014 for approximately $3.2 billion. It was one of Google’s largest acquisitions at the time and signalled the company’s serious ambitions in the smart home space.
Not quite. Google acquired Nest Labs in early 2014 for around $3.2 billion. The deal brought Nest’s thermostat and smoke detector products under Google’s umbrella and helped lay the groundwork for what is now the Google Home ecosystem.
What is the name of Google’s premium large-format smart speaker, discontinued in 2022, that was designed to compete with the Apple HomePod?
Correct! The Google Home Max was Google’s high-end speaker, featuring powerful dual woofers and Smart Sound technology that adjusted audio based on the room. It was discontinued in 2022 after a few years on the market.
Not quite. The Google Home Max was Google’s premium speaker aimed at audiophiles. It was a large, powerful device with dual woofers, but Google quietly discontinued it in 2022 without releasing a direct successor.
Which smart home standard, co-developed by Google, Apple, Amazon, and others, is designed to make devices from different brands work together seamlessly?
Correct! Matter is the universal smart home connectivity standard that Google helped develop alongside Apple, Amazon, and the Connectivity Standards Alliance. It launched in 2022 and aims to eliminate compatibility headaches between smart home ecosystems.
Not quite. The answer is Matter — a cross-industry smart home standard backed by Google, Apple, Amazon, and many device makers. It’s designed so that smart home products work across different platforms without needing separate apps or hubs.
Which Google Nest Hub generation added an on-device sleep tracking feature that works without a wearable?
Correct! The Google Nest Hub 2nd generation, released in 2021, introduced Sleep Sensing — a radar-based feature using the Soli chip that can track your breathing, movement, and sleep quality without any wearable device.
Not quite. It was the Google Nest Hub 2nd generation (2021) that introduced Sleep Sensing. It uses a Soli radar chip to monitor sleep without a wearable, offering morning reports on sleep quality, coughing, and snoring.
What was the original name of the Google Nest Hub before it was rebranded in 2019?
Correct! When it launched in 2018, the device was called the Google Home Hub. In 2019, Google rebranded its entire smart home line under the Nest name, and it became the Google Nest Hub — a name it retains to this day.
Not quite. The device launched in 2018 as the Google Home Hub. When Google consolidated its smart home products under the Nest brand in 2019, it was renamed the Google Nest Hub along with other products in the range.
Your Score
/ 8
Thanks for playing!
Smart devices are getting there
AI improvements have helped
AI assistants have been around for a long time, and for the most part, they excelled at answering basic questions. If I were looking for a yes or no answer to something, I could always rely on Siri or Google Assistant. The introduction of Alexa+ and Google Gemini has been good for these smart devices, because now I can have actual conversations with the AI. It’ll remember previous things I asked, and it’s not as frustrating to use. My Google Home Mini doesn’t feel quite like that, and that’s partly due to its age. Newer devices that I’ve updated to Gemini feel more fluid, and my Pixel 9a is easy to use with Gemini.
I’m still not fully on board with AI as a whole, but it’s nice for things like this. I’ve always thought of AI as more of something I need in a pinch instead of a crutch to write emails or do my job. I love using AI for small things like a Home or Nest, and I wish companies focused more on things like that instead of expanding it to literally everything that they can. The average person gets a lot more use out of something like Gemini, being good with simple questions, and even Amazon’s Rufus AI model is great for shopping around for good deals.
Using AI in this manner has been a thing for many years before this boom, and it’s nice to see companies still making improvements on it. I mean, my Google Home Mini is a perfect example of this, as the latest Gemini model is far better than what the old Google Assistant could do, although not everybody agrees with that.
Over the years, I’ve almost grown nostalgic for my Google Home Mini, because it’s a reminder of how far things have come. I got it for free through some bundle that I can’t remember, and it was sitting around collecting dust for a while until I found a use for it. Sure, I could upgrade it to something newer, but it still does what I need it to do for the most part, and there are plenty of other ways I can justify spending my money before grabbing that. When my Google Home Mini reaches its final update and stops working, then I’ll think about it. For the time being, I’ll just put up with having to ask it things twice now and then. A Google Nest Mini does sound quite nice, though.
