Interior design and home decorating has been heavily influenced by technology. It seems everyone wants a smart home not just a beautiful home. As such brands, and designers, have been working hard at making home technology well-designed. Not only is it important that it uses cutting edge technology but it also has to blend into our homes. But anyone with a ‘smarter’ home can tell, that all that extra technology can be helpful but almost painful without a proper central hub/control center. Sure you can control most of home tech products via your smart phone but that can be limiting. As a result, Google launched Google Home last year. Now, one year later the Google Home is smaller and more affordable with the introduction of the Google Home Mini.
Why Google Home Mini? Simply, because it has almost all the same features as a Google Home but in a more compact size and a friendlier price point. But what can it do?
- It contains a powerful 360 degree speaker/microphone so it can hear and broadcast from almost anywhere in your home.
- It has the same powerful search engine as Google. You can ask it just about anything and it will give you answer almost immediately. Ask it about the weather, cooking times, trivia, etc.
- You can control most of your smart home devices – from Nest thermostats to Philips Hue light bulbs to SONOS speakers. It currently is set up to be compatible with over 1000 home tech devices.
- Mini also works with your Google Chromecast on your TV – so you can simply ask it to play episodes from your favourite Netflix shows without lifting a finger.
- You can make free calls to numbers in the U.S and Canada for free without any extra software or hardware.
- The Google Mini has Voice Match technology so that it can recognize up to 6 unique voices in your household. This is handy when you ask it to call Mom and it will call your mom not your mother-in-law. Phew!
Overall, the Google Home Mini is a superior product to other tech assistants on the market we tested out. What we love about the Home Mini is that it has great voice recognition which meant it often understand our commands with only one ask. Moreover it helped managing our daily life/schedule. The Google Home Mini comes in three colours: Chalk, Charcoal and Coral. The Google Home Mini retails for $79 in Canada.
