Well wow, that is really my first impression when seeing all the new changes and force google is putting behind its home assistant.
For those of you who haven’t had a chance to see all the new changes basically here are the highlights:
Smart Home API
Free Calling from your number (not bluetooth)
Proactive Notifications (Lets you know if you need to leave early due to traffic)
In home awareness API
4.5% error rate in voice recognition (better than human conversations)
A lot of this new technology is a result of a big push by google this year to advance AI technologies. This can be seen by the massive amount of resources that google seems to be putting behind the creation of new tools for developers to create contextual and actionable apps that will provide even better input.
The question that comes to my mind is just what is amazon going to do? I am not convinced that with Google steaming ahead at this rate with this big of a push that Amazon has the resources even to catch up. For example, amazon has no way of offering free phone calls (to any landline/mobile) like google does with their existing google voice architecture. Amazon may have the server resources to computationally develop advanced AI for proactive alerts, but they do not currently have software to run on it.
I guess I just struggle to see how if Google delivers on its promises how Amazon will even be able to catch up. Love to hear thoughts from others.
It does not surprise me that Google is leading this technological platform (although I am a little shocked Apple isn’t further along). In every market there is a definitive leader and usually a close secondary competitor. I believe that even though Amazon is behind on some major advances of Google, they will work to quickly pick up the slack. Amazon has a huge following, at least in the US, and can remain a leader just picking up the customers that do not welcome Google as much as others.
Me personally, I am a Google fan but Amazon/Alexa made it into my home first (due to release & availability). Since then I expanded the Alexa/Echo presence in my smart home but have longed for my Google. I plan to add a Google Assistant (and Pi Assistant) in the near future and run both side by side, at least in the beginning.
I see advantages in Google’s platform but due to previous purchases, Amazon’s Alexa is already integrated and works very well with my HA needs.
I’d wait for WWDC in a few weeks. The Apple rumour machine is as always pumping out … rumours, but if apple is about to make a push on HomeKit and its integration, WWDC is the place to announce a Siri-integrated Alexa/Google Home competitor. Interesting times lie ahead
Amazon most certainly has the user base, but google has the data and I think in the endgame on who wins the AI “assistant” war is one who can contextual do what the user wants and get hardware providers on board. The thing about google is they already know about my phone (android), email, location (maps), phone contacts, calendar events, todo lis, google search history, youtube videos I like to watch and so much more.
Google has the platform, they have all the data to make educated decisions based on what they’d feel I want because they’ve been collecting this information to market ads towards us for years.
Amazon really only knows about my shopping, and how I am interacting with Alexa. So unless they can somehow integrate with the information that google seems to have on me in abundance, I don’t see how alexa could make highly intelligent decisions on what I want.
I think this is going to be the golden age of AI in the next few years so we’ll see.
I think Apple is going to slowly die. Without Jobs to lead it, they don’t have the vision to lead anymore. It’s not going to happen over night. But the days of Apple defining a marketplace are over.
Google and Amazon are going to be the big players. They both have loads of data and the developers skilled in big data analytics which is the heart of any AI system. We the consumer are best served if they keep pushing each other driving costs down and driving the technology forward.
In the end though, I think it’s going to be systems like HA that define the industry. Applications like HA will implement new technologies first, they will integrate with new hardware and will be what hardware engineers tinker with at home.
I for one don’t really want Google or really Amazon for that matter any deeper into my psyche than they are today. We have let the privacy genie out of the bottle and we need to find a way to put her back in.
i think there is a big difference between american point of view and european point of view.
if you had asked me who was in the lead a few months ago, i defenitly would have said google.
and i would prefer google even now above amazon, because it seems a bit more natural.
but i live in gemany and i am dutch.
google still has only english where amazon already has added german.
and allthough i prefer english google above english amazon, i prefer german amazon above english google.
in combination with only 55 euro for amazon, Alexa made the race to my home first.
and allthough i see lots of advantages from google, i dont see lexa dissapearing in a short time.
unless google is there in dutch in the near future, and in the same time there is no promise that Alexa will have that too.
i think that in europe and the rest of the world, the languagesupport will be the deciding part in the first few years.
and it seems that amazon is the one that knows the importance from that.
my friend, they have 240 billion cash, and is still increasing. Before a company with such a user base, and cash, dies (IF it dies), it will take 30-40-50 year +
When I tried to get it to connect to HA Bridge it would not since I do not have an actual Google Home yet. I already have the first version of the Pi Assistant set up but not in use until I can fully integrate.
with Google Assistant, google can give you dutch (plus the other european languages) overnight. Is all done already, they just need to turn on the switch.
No argument there. But tell me, what have Microsoft, or HP come out since founders left? For a company to thrive, it takes three types of people. Visionary, Manager, and Tech. The visionary is usually the founder. They are the ones that believe anything can be done. They see a vision of what could be and drive toward that vision almost single-mindedly. The Tech guys (These are not necessarily IT it is Tech in the broader term) these are the people that realize the visionary’s vision. They feed off the excitement of the visionary and make his vision reality. Then there are the managers. These guys keep the other two grounded and try to keep the business from running out of money. Tech and Managers are good at keeping a company running, but over time without the new ideas of the visionary, the company goes the way of DEC, HP, Ford, GM. They stagnate and become has beens. They need the vision of new leadership at the top and in my opinion Apple has lost it. Google and Amazon learned form Apple. They throw out two or three new ideas every year and see which ones stick. Then they turn those new ideas into products and in some cases move the world forward. They learn from what did and didn’t work with the ideas that didn’t stick and either throw them away or re-tweak them and push them out again in a few years. Alexa show is one of those things. Is it going to be successful? It remains to be seen. But I have no interest in a device that will tell me if I’m well dressed or not. (someone in advertising should be fired for using that as the add campaign). Other than that, what’s the difference between it and a tablet with HA or the new Dashboard installed on it. I’m not sure. But in the next year or so, it will either go away, or it will find a killer app for it.
And back to the original topic. All of these things though are the same. What’s the killer app for Google Home, or Alexa. We use it to turn on and off lights, check the weather, and my kids use it to figure out how to spell words, and do math problems. Other than that, it’s a cute toy that plays music too. The visionaries have pushed the product out. They are waiting for us to tell them which way to turn as far as the next generation goes.
True,
But none of them are anywhere near the dominant player they were when they had a vision and weren’t just following the pack. My point is simply that Apple has lost their visionary leader. Unless they find someone with the vision of a Steve Jobs to take the lead, they will be come a follower. I moved to Apple computers, and phones a few years back, because they are in my opinion a superior product. I’m just not looking to them for “life changing” products going forward.
and amazon does that in a big way. they make free meetings for all who want to develope things, for those who will make their product to something spectaculair. they organize sessions that learn people how to develop within their environment, which will lead to steps forward.
it seems like nothing at this moment, but if it kicks in the new feature they released (free chat from 1 echo to another) could replace normal telephone use in a few years. we had the option to use things like skype in stead of using the telophone, but there were Always downsides. you still needed a pc or to start an app on your mobile before you could use it and the other side had to do the same.
but a device that is already in the room and just say: call … doesnt have those downsides.
i dont say it will revolutionize, but it has the potention to do so.
I’m waiting on the brain implant where you can download a copy of any book or manual from amazon instantaneously, and where I won’t have to talk to alexa, she will just do what I want her to do by just thinking about it.
I am not sure about that. I don’t like to make calls on a speakerphone.
Normal telephone use has been already revolutionized by cellular phone, and now whatsapp call is again a revolution: all my friend use it for international calls.
I see the Echo as a bluetooth speaker in that regards, nothing more: but a beautiful one, since the mic array is great, and the speaker is of good (not excellent but good) quality.
Too bad Amazon does not want to give it to you as a bluetooth speaker, but force you to join the Amazon ec(h)osystem.