Table of Content
- Home View, multi-room audio, & other Google Home Hub features coming to all Smart Displays
- Made by Google ‘Interactive Video Streaming Device’ arrives at FCC, likely Google Home Hub
- Google releases ‘Hey Mom’ ad for Mother’s Day, discounts Home Hub to $99
- Digital wellbeing with Google Home Hub
- lights your way.
- Direct Competitors and Related Products
- Join the Public Preview to try new Google Home app features early.
The original Google Home model is a cylindrical speaker that is 5.62 inches tall and 3.79 inches in diameter. The top surface of the device features colored status LEDs, and features capacitive touch controls to start and stop music, and adjust volume. A mute button is located on the back of the device, which disables the microphones. The Home Hub is not stylish, but the understated design should blend in with your home quite well.

Google is now rolling out a new firmware version for Home Hub’s enrolled in the Preview Program that adds more precise device controls, including separate alarm and media volumes. With Continued Conversation, smart speakers will leave the microphone on for a few seconds after Assistant finishes a reply so that users can ask a follow-up without repeating the hotword. By swiping up from the top of the screen, you’ll see a control panel listing all of the smart devices in your home. You can select a smart device category, or a room in the “Rooms” overview, to control them individually. Google does not yet give a numerical score for the quality of sleep, like other sleep trackers do, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s added in a future update.
Home View, multi-room audio, & other Google Home Hub features coming to all Smart Displays
Get your personalized schedule, commute, reminders, and more with Voice Match. With Google Photos, get your best and latest pictures of loved ones, automatically. Simply use your voice to watch YouTube and play songs from YouTube Music on a crystal clear speaker. And with Voice Match, get your personalized calendar, commute, answers from Google, and more. Google Assistant, an intelligent personal assistant, is included as the main and only assistant in Google Home.

That might sound unimportant but, for curious folks and/or parents of young, inquisitive children, that could impact which assistant you want in your home. But, while its small stature might have you concerned, it’s a surprisingly well-built product. It feels sturdily made and while the screen could break if something heavy came in contact with it, we felt more than safe with it sitting on our kitchen shelves and dining room table. Google Home Hub released on October 22, 2018 for $149, £139 (around AU$210 and R2,999) in the US and UK, with availability for Australia to follow after. However, you're now able to get a sizable discount on the speaker in both regions thanks to Black Friday 2018. With Ambient EQ, Hub adjusts to match the colors and lighting in its environment, so photos on Hub seamlessly blend in with your home decor.
Made by Google ‘Interactive Video Streaming Device’ arrives at FCC, likely Google Home Hub
Swiping up from the bottom brings up a menu where you can change the brightness, volume, and toggle Do Not Disturb Mode. Swiping down from the top brings up Home View, a convenient interface that allows you to control all of your smart devices. It also won’t take up much space on your nightstand, table, or kitchen counter. The device’s base is only 2.6 inches wide, and not quite as long as the 7-inch screen.
Due to privacy concerns, Google removed the feature entirely from all units via a software update. In December 2017, Google released an update to Home Mini, allowing users to long-press the volume buttons to play and pause audio. Google Assistant’s smart display initiative has so far seen two pieces of hardware with the Lenovo Smart Display and JBL Link View.
Google releases ‘Hey Mom’ ad for Mother’s Day, discounts Home Hub to $99
To use Google Assistant, a user of any Nest / Google Home device must register and sync an account using the Google Home mobile app. In the app, a setting allows the user to teach Google Assistant their voice. The Google voice technology can be used in digital forensics, where the words "OK, Google" are capable of unlocking mobile locks. A mobile device can be found, unlocked, and data can be extracted through the use of a suspect's voice file.
It tells me what time I “went” to bed, what time I fell asleep, how long I was sleeping, how long during the night I snored or coughed, my respiratory rate, and if I adhered to my intended schedule. The Home Hub’s software is smart enough to present two vertically oriented photos side by side, instead of cropping them awkwardly. It also cleverly groups images of the same person together when it displays them. Even better, they don’t need to be concerned about mom and dad dropping by anytime they have company over, and the device powers down nicely at night so that they can get some shuteye at the end of a busy day. In fact, one of the biggest changes Google's made since launch is integrating YouTube Music into the device and allowing you to play music on-demand at no additional cost and without a subscription . The whole setup process takes just a few minutes and, thanks to the great new Google Home app UI, setting up additional devices has never been easier.
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL get further pricing details, while the Google Store has officially confirmed the Home Hub. As 10/9 comes to a close, Google is recapping all of its announcements from Made by Google 2018 with a short, succinct video. Coming in at under four minutes, it features Google Hardware head Rick Osterloh and other presenters summarizing the key Pixel 3, Home Hub, and Pixel Slate aspects. Following deep Black Friday discounts that led to equally deep consternation among early adopters, the Google Store is continuing its holiday offers on the Pixel 3, Home Hub, and Nest smart home bundles.
However, these displays are annoying to use at night because Google’s UI is a stark white. It’s time for Google to add a dark mode to Smart Displays like the Home Hub. Privacy advocates may welcome this choice, but as someone who enjoys video calling, I found it disappointing.
View and control compatible lights, cameras, TVs, and other devices from a single dashboard. Users can connect and group together multiple Home speakers for synchronized playback of music in every room. A notable feature omission, multiple accounts, was criticized by JR Raphael of Computerworld in November 2016, but an update for users in the United States in April 2017 enabled the feature. Google Home can now recognize up to six different voices, pulling information from their different accounts depending on who's talking. Google Home has integration with each user's calendar, for adding reminders or appointments verbally.
The smart home functionality, provided you have compatible stuff, is particularly good. With its small size and soft fabric exterior, the Home Hub is well-suited for nearly every room in your house. The notable absence of a camera helps alleviate privacy concerns, which makes it ideal for personal spaces like the bedroom. The display is colorful, sharp and there’s an intelligent light sensor that’ll dim and adjust it appropriately depending on the surroundings. Combine that with Google Assistant smarts and an affordable price point, and the Home Hub is a highly compelling choice for a smart display. For watching video, the Hub’s display looks just as great as it does with photos, and the sound quality from the single speaker is sufficient.
I also am trusting that its microphones are picking up my coughs and snores and not my spouse’s — I really have no way to verify that data without sticking a camera in my bedroom and recording the night, which I’m not willing to do. This is very much a wellness device and not something to take the place of medical diagnoses. For the 20 percent of Nest Hub owners that keep the device in their bedroom , this new sleep tracking feature works very well — it’s by far the easiest and most comfortable way to track sleep that I’ve tested. But for the other 80 percent, I’m disappointed the new Nest Hub hasn’t meaningfully improved the experience over the prior model. If you know what you’re looking for, like how to make pasta or the latest video from your favorite streamer, you can simply ask Google Assistant to help you. At most, the Home Hub will display three videos on screen at a time - which can mean it might take a few minutes to find what you’re looking for.

The latest feature that Google has added is automatic sleep tracking, which uses special sensors built into the new Nest Hub’s display bezel to track your movement and breathing at night to evaluate your sleep. Google is also using those sensors to add some basic gesture controls, and it has beefed up the speaker inside the Nest Hub to improve its audio quality. Of course, if you do buy the Home Hub, you’re also getting a smart display and a centralized smart home control hub. The Home Hub is not the largest, most expensive, best sounding, or flashiest smart display you can buy, but it might just be the best one for the most people. Right, so before you start your smart home odyssey, you’ll need to setup your new device.
You can also get a summary of the smart devices in your home when you swipe down from the top of the screen. The Home Hub will also act as a viewer for Nest video doorbells and cameras, but it doesn’t work with other brands at this time. The original Google Home speaker released in November 2016 featured a cylindrical shape with colored status LEDs on top. In October 2017, Google announced two additions to the product lineup, the miniature puck-shaped Google Home Mini and a larger Google Home Max.

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