Google Home smart speaker launched in India at Rs 9,999

New Delhi: Google on Tuesday launched the Home and Home Mini smart speaker in India at an event in New Delhi.

Google Home and Google Home Mini will be priced at Rs 9,999 and Rs 4,499 respectively. The Home speakers will be exclusively available online via Flipkart. The home speakers will support Google Play Music, YouTube, Netflix, Saavn, and Gaana.

Google Assistant will work seamlessly for across all devices. The top surface of the device contains LEDs that provide visual feedback when Google Home recognises the "Hey Google" command.

In those moments when voice won`t do, the top surface is also a capacitive touch panel, thereby enabling the user to play music or adjust the volume with a single touch.

Google Home Mini is sleek and smooth, with no corners or edges. And it`s small enough to easily place anywhere in your home. It`s almost entirely enclosed in custom fabric. It`s durable and soft, but also transparent enough to let through both light and sound. The four LED lights underneath the fabric that light up to show users when it hears them or when it`s thinking. Mini has far-field mics so it can hear even when there`s music playing or loud noise in the background: its circular design it can project 360-degree sound, with just one speaker.

Google last year rolled out a multitasking feature in its smart home speaker that makes it possible for the device to accomplish two different tasks at the same time.

Routines feature will fix this issue by allowing users to group multiple commands together under a custom phrase. This addition will essentially let the user bundle two requests into the same sentence instead of having to say one command at a time. However, the new two-command functionality has not been extended to the Google's AI assistant that accompanies Android smartphones.

Google smart home speakers will rival Amazon's cloud-based voice service "Alexa" in India.

Alexa delivers a customised Indian experience, including an all-new English voice with local pronunciations and intonation; support for music titles, names and places in additional non-English languages. Priced at Rs 9,999, "Echo" is a hands-free, voice-controlled speaker that allows users to access "Alexa" from anywhere in the room with far-field voice control.

It uses on-device software to detect the wake word, "Alexa". When Echo detects the wake word, the device's light ring turns blue and begins streaming the request to the cloud where "Alexa" processes the request.

Another device, "Echo Plus", available at Rs 14,999, includes all the features of Echo, including room-filling sound powered by Dolby and a far-field microphone array, and adds a built-in smart home hub.

"Echo Dot" also uses the same far-field voice recognition as Echo. Priced at Rs 4,499, it has a sleek and compact design and comes in either black or white.

With Agency Inputs