Google Introduces the Indian Versions Of Google Home, Google Home Mini

Global search giant Google has now introduced its new products in the Indian Market. Presenting Google Home and Google Home Mini, the company is bringing a voice assistant build for the Indian accent.

In a blog post, Rishi Chandra, VP,  Product Management, Google Home, shared, “With a simple “Ok, Google” or “Hey Google”, you can get answers, turn up the music, manage everyday tasks or even control smart devices around your home. Google Home understands Indian accents, and will respond to you with uniquely Indian contexts.”

Google Home and Home Mini have been introduced at the price of $153.9 (INR 9,999) and $76.9 (INR 4,999), respectively on Flipkart and over 750 retail stores including Reliance Digital, Croma and Vijay Sales, among others.

Chandra explained in his blog post that it was designed with two microphones to enable accurate far-field voice recognition. The technique used here is neural beam forming, under which the company has “simulated hundreds of thousands of noisy environments and applied machine learning to recognise patterns that allow us to filter and separate speech from noise.”

Also, Google Home Mini has far-field mics “so it can hear you even when there’s music playing or loud noise in the background: with its circular design it can project 360-degree sound, with just one speaker.”

Some of the other features of the latest products are:

• With Google Assistant, you can ask questions, translate phrases, run simple maths calculations, look up the meaning of a word, get news etc at your whims and fancy.
• The Google Assistant, with your permission, will help in your daily routine. Up to six people can connect their account to one Google Home.
• With a distinctly Indian voice, Google assistant speaks and understands your language.
• You can play songs, playlists, artists, and albums from your favourite music subscription services like Play Music along with offers from Saavn and Gaana
• It can help you keep track of everything going on in your home–you can control your lights, switches and more, using compatible smart devices from brands like Philips Hue, D-Link and TP-Link.

Furthermore, the company is also planning to introduce Hindi support later this year and teaming up with third-party apps for the Assistant.

In the voice-based assistance, we have global ecommerce giant Amazon which has introduced Amazon Alexa, its voice-controlled speakers designed entirely around the speaker’s voice.

Alexa runs on cloud and will answer questions, play music, turn the lights on and off, give sports scores, check the weather, calls friends and family and more.

Also, we have luxury phone maker Apple’s in-built voice-based assistant Siri, who has been a major attraction for its users.

As the voice technology becomes the new revolution, companies have been recognising the industry potential and diving their way into voice tech. With Google introducing Home and Home Mini, we have to keep an eye out on its competition with Amazon’s Alexa.

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