3 ms·

I have a few Echos that we bought a year ago over Christmas. We use it to play music and control home automation. It works relatively well. My husband has a thi

I have a few Echos that we bought a year ago over Christmas. We use it to play music and control home automation. It works relatively well. My husband has a thick russian accent, and with him it struggles sometimes. I don't use the app and so have no use for that. What are other things the Google home does better? Like help me understand the use case. You say Google Home is more "conversational", but how?

m0zg 8y ago
You can mostly speak to it like you'd speak to a human, and in the vast majority of cases it will understand. No need for rigid commands. You can also ask clarifying questions and it will keep context. Its speech synthesis and response language is more "human" and "cheerful". I just wish it also had an echo-like microphone array. When it's playing music it sometimes can be difficult to get it to hear commands.
- walterbell 8y ago
  Previous Echo models had the same issue with music. The latest Echo model will lower the music volume when it hears the wake word. Alexa can make phone calls that dial a landline number, which is not an option with Google.
  - StudentStuff 8y ago
    Hrm? Google Home can make calls (uses the google voice # of the account paired to it).
    - walterbell 8y ago
      Echo can use a landline for the outbound call.
      - StudentStuff 8y ago
        How is this better than the Google Home/Google Voice integration? Seems significantly more complex, and reliant on the end user having a working home phone line
        walterbell 8y ago
        Echo can dial (VOIP) without a landline, same as Google Voice/Home. If you have a landline and want your outbound Echo calls to have the same caller ID as the landline (so that people can return/screen calls), then Echo is the only option for voice dialing.
  - Semaphor 8y ago
    > The latest Echo model will lower the music volume when it hears the wake word. I got my Echo a while ago before the current generation was even announced. It would always lower the volume as soon as it hears the wake word.
    - walterbell 8y ago
      Then it was only Echo v1 which didn't have this feature.

m0zg 8y ago

You can mostly speak to it like you'd speak to a human, and in the vast majority of cases it will understand. No need for rigid commands. You can also ask clarifying questions and it will keep context. Its speech synthesis and response language is more "human" and "cheerful". I just wish it also had an echo-like microphone array. When it's playing music it sometimes can be difficult to get it to hear commands.

walterbell 8y ago
Previous Echo models had the same issue with music. The latest Echo model will lower the music volume when it hears the wake word. Alexa can make phone calls that dial a landline number, which is not an option with Google.
- StudentStuff 8y ago
  Hrm? Google Home can make calls (uses the google voice # of the account paired to it).
  - walterbell 8y ago
    Echo can use a landline for the outbound call.
    - StudentStuff 8y ago
      How is this better than the Google Home/Google Voice integration? Seems significantly more complex, and reliant on the end user having a working home phone line
      - walterbell 8y ago
        Echo can dial (VOIP) without a landline, same as Google Voice/Home. If you have a landline and want your outbound Echo calls to have the same caller ID as the landline (so that people can return/screen calls), then Echo is the only option for voice dialing.
- Semaphor 8y ago
  > The latest Echo model will lower the music volume when it hears the wake word. I got my Echo a while ago before the current generation was even announced. It would always lower the volume as soon as it hears the wake word.
  - walterbell 8y ago
    Then it was only Echo v1 which didn't have this feature.