Yesterday, Google announced big bold plans for Google Home and Google Assistant, while neither Amazon nor Google delivered (entirely) the newly announced features…
… do you agree with the statement that GH can or will be able to do things better than Alexa in the near future?
0 voters
Until Google gets a more natural wake command and can actually hear me when I talk to it, I’m sticking with Alexa. Which is too bad as I like the knowledge that Google has for many things.
It’s going to continue to be one of those situations where one device will work better for some people and the other will work better for others. They still have different capabilities.
The announced phone calling sounds better right now on Google home, but will have to see what actually works, and we already know that Amazon is working on expanding that feature for their devices.
The naming conventions are very different for the two devices so again different ones will work for different people.
Amazon is still way ahead in terms of number of skills and integrations, but of course that can change over time.
The Amazon hardware is still way better in terms of 360° Farfield recognition and that’s not going to change. But not everyone needs that. My house has an open floor plan so one Amazon device placed centrally can hear you from about four different rooms. When we got to Google home, it was only successful hearing us from one side, we literally lost about half the coverage. But if you have your Google home sitting up against a wall and you only need coverage for a room or two anyway, you may not even notice that difference.
As far as expanding on a budget, the Amazon Dot is less than half the cost of the Google home. That may change if the Nvidia device ever gets released.
There are various other differences, and again, different things work for different people. Right now I think they are both good systems, and both getting better. 
Both have a long way to surpass the novelty grade. Amazon has its shortcomings. While it may hear better, I found that GH hears/understands better when there is noise in the room. I can barely use Echo when someone else is talking, and in my home, someone else is talking all of the time, either a TV, my wife or my kids. 
Hands free calling:
Google - Call any mobile or landline phone. No capability to talk to another Google Home.
Amazon - Can only call another Echo device in your contacts. But great for internal intercom within the same home if only you could specifically pick the device to call, not every one of them ringing.
**The Echo to Echo brings up privacy issues as there is no way to block anyone from calling your Echo. Whole other topic of privacy and security here.
Voice recognition:
Google - Can recognize an individual’s voice and act accordingly bringing up calendars, events, playing favorites automatically based on the person Google hears.
Amazon - Wakes up and automatically tries to order a pizza for me when it hears the Domino’s commercial on TV
Wake Word:
Google - ok Google. I agree this is stupid. Now Hey Google to me is somewhat a natural expression other than the word is Google.
Amazon - ok, calling echo by a single name might seem natural, but being locked down to Amazon, Alexa or Echo for names is kind of silly
Video:
Google - Not here yet
Amazon - We will find out on June 28 how this fairs. But if they don’t add facial recognition to the camera, I will be disappointed.
Then there’s visual presentation and automatically loading photos, YouTube, calendar and other events straight to the TV based on voice recognition. If you didn’t watch the keynote / presentation yesterday, you should.
I have 1 Echo, 3 Dots and a Show on the way, but after watching and listening to the presentation yesterday, my honest opinion is that for some of what I listed above and for many things I didn’t mention that were discussed, I think that Google just took a major foothold and will soon pass Amazon in this space, and with 2 billion Google devices in play, I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. They may have been slow out of the gate (2 years behind), but I think the ground they just gained puts them right there. Remains to be seen.
Both of these companies might learn a lesson from SNL, which would really help Amazon in the case below. Felt this video needed to be posted again for those who didn’t watch this past weekend:
Alexa also allows the use of “computer” as a wake word. 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201971890
Lol thanks for the clarification JD. That fixes everything now with my Echo world 
Will be interesting to see if Apple enters the market this year.
If they do, I predict the product will cost 150% as much as the competition’s and will only interface with services/devices that contractually obligate themselves to buying proprietary hardware from Apple’s vendors and certifying their services against some ridiculously cost-prohibitive certification regime.
Or maybe I’m thinking of something else…
Yeah…
There needs to be a 3rd option for it depends on the situation. GH will excel at some things, Alexa at others.
I always tell people to try both for two weeks and just see which one they like better. 
A couple of notes about the phone calls on Google home:
One, this is a pre-announcement. The feature “will be rolled out over the next few months” and it’s not really clear what that means. So whatever it’s going to be, it’s not here yet.
Two, this is for outgoing calls only. Amazon devices can also receive the calls. With Google home, it’s convenient for the person placing the call, but the person receiving the call has to do All their normal stuff.
Three, Amazon can do messages as well as calls. Google home just does calls.
Four, because this just places outgoing calls, there’s no intercom like feature on the Google home the way there is now on Amazon devices.
Five, Amazon can only call another Amazon device or someone who has the Amazon app installed on the mobile phone. It looks like Google home is probably going to use something like Skype calling and will be able to call any regular phone number.
So as always, pluses and minuses, but I’m seeing several write ups in the press by journalists who don’t appear to have paid attention to the details. In particular the fact that you can’t receive a call at all with Google home.
Siri succhia!
I will wait and see. This is a product category that Google should be able to dominate but, I’ve seen too many flops and half-baked products from Google. I have two Echos, one Dot, and one Tap and I’m not planning to switch any time soon.
Please take a moment and answer this question about future Anazon custom skills, it may help shape development of an app or two 
Alexa can now control Dish Network’s Hopper DVR too.
That’s better than harmony!
This. WAF was zero when we were saying “ok google” to my wall mount tablet and it could only hear us from a few feet away, but is very high with “Alexa, turn on the ______” from anywhere in the room.