Do you need rich bass for your workout at home? Or do you value crystal clear heights on your favourite morning podcast? Or would you like to know how the weather will be from the Google Assistant? With your new Google Nest Audio, you will experience a whole new world of sound! Fill every corner of your home with the best sound. A “Hey Google, start my workout playlist” or “Hey Google, play my podcast” and you can control your sound at home on demand.
Why Google Nest?
Google has made it its business to make your everyday life easier. For this purpose, the Google Assistant should help you to complete tasks faster and thus save time. This extends to both organizational tasks and the control of your connected home. With the steadily increasing integration of numerous Google services, this voice assistant is becoming more and more accessible and talented. Google Nest offers a wide range of products that make your everyday life easier and make your home smarter and safer. From smart voice assistants to mesh Wi-Fi and video surveillance - everything is networked and easily accessible via the Google Home app.
What makes Google Nest special?
With Google Nest you can create a modern and connected home. The smart home products are user-friendly, versatile and easy to use. In combination with modern design, Google Nest turns its products into furnishings that you do not have to hide. The Google Assistant serves as the central control element. With Google's infrastructure and the huge database, it helps you in many areas of life. The voice assistant has a lot of material available to answer all your search queries - on demand, without the push of a button. The Google Assistant learns your preferences from previous search queries and thus provides even more precise results in the future.
Smart speaker
With a Google Nest Smart Speaker, you will experience the highest level of sound enjoyment - whether it's rich bass for your workout at home in the evening or crystal-clear highs for your podcasts in the morning. Up to 3 microphones ensure that speech recognition works perfectly even from a great distance. This is how the Google Assistant understands you in every situation.
Google Nest Audio
Top sound - anytime, anywhere: Connect Google Nest Audio to the most popular streaming services such as YouTube Music, Spotify or TuneIn. A simple "Hey Google, play music" is enough and Google Nest Audio will fill your home with crystal clear sound.
Your own stereo system: Connect two Nest Audio speakers to a stereo system - either in the same room or as a multi-room solution.
Google Assistant integrated
Three integrated microphones open the whole world of the Google Assistant to you. “Hey Google, will it rain today?” Can be just as practical in the morning as the answer to the question: “Hey Google, what appointments are you scheduled for today?”.
Exemplary in terms of sustainability: The surface of the Google Nest Audio is made of 70 percent recycled plastic.
High level of data protection: A simple "Hey Google, delete what I just said" and what has been said will be removed from the history. With a switch on the back, you can also safely deactivate the microphone at any time.
What can the Google Home app do?
With the Google Home app, you have all devices under control and connect them to a connected home. This is how you control your Google Nest products centrally via one interface. A smart speaker like the Google Nest Mini serves as the interface for the Google Assistant. You can also use the Google Home app to integrate third-party devices, such as thermostats, smart door locks, lamps or other loudspeakers, and control them using voice commands. The app also serves as an entertainment hub. The Google Assistant has access to streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer, TuneIn, YouTube or Netflix via the Google Home app. This is made possible by Google's Chromecast technology. So, you can start music or videos even on non-smart devices simply by calling.
Smarter in everyday life with the Google Assistant
By integrating the voice assistant into the Google Home app, you can even control connected smart home devices by voice. More and more devices are compatible with the Google Home app. The system thus serves as a central control for home automation. The voice assistant also streams music and videos on demand.
For an even more efficient process, you can create routines in the Google Home app. A standard selection is already available here - such as the good morning routine. Here you select possible actions from a list of all connected devices, which are then triggered one after the other on command. Or you can create your own routines. You can also set the corresponding voice command according to your wishes.
- Smart surveillance cameras
Google Nest surveillance cameras convince with a sharp picture in a resolution of 1080p, night vision and intercom function. If something unusual moves in front of the camera, the built-in motion detector immediately sends you a message on your smartphone. Of course, the outdoor products from Google Nest brave snow and rain - or whatever else is beating down on them.
- Nest Hello - The smart video doorbell
With the Google Nest Hello, you can always see immediately who is on your doorstep. As soon as someone rings the doorbell, you will receive a notification on your smartphone. You can access the live feed of the video doorbell with just one tap. Thanks to full HD resolution, HDR video and night vision, nothing remains hidden. You can address your visit directly via the intercom function and tell the postman, for example, where to put your package. Or you can play one of the pre-recorded voice messages.
The smart doorbell streams high-resolution video material to the cloud around the clock via Wi-Fi. This way you can check missed activities retrospectively - with a Nest Aware subscription even up to 60 days later. The Nest Hello recognizes people and warns you of visitors via push notification on your smartphone even before they ring the bell. And thanks to the direct power supply, you do not have to worry about empty batteries.
- Intelligent fire protection with Nest Protect
Protect yourself and your loved ones with smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. With a human voice as an alarm, the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarms warn you of various types of danger. They differentiate and localize the sources of danger and thus avoid unnecessary alarms. The Nest Protect has no annoying quirks of conventional smoke alarms. If the battery level of one of the sensors is low, the app will inform you of this. So, you will not be woken up in the middle of the night by an annoying beep, the source of which you must laboriously locate. And you can simply mute a triggered alarm in the app when you have the situation under control.
If an alarm is triggered, the whole family receives a warning on the smartphone. And if you must get up at night, the integrated night light lights up the way for you as you pass. In order to offer a high quality of security and protection, the Nest Protect smoke alarms test themselves at regular intervals and provide consumption reports. For even more security, you can network the detector with the Google Nest surveillance cameras so that they can record video when the smoke detector alarms.
- Nest Wi-Fi - Seamless Wi-Fi thanks to the mesh network
With Google Nest Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi holes do not stand a chance at home. The outstanding range of the Wi-Fi router brings your wireless Internet connection to the last corner. If it is not enough, you amplify the signal with an access point. This differs from the router in that it has built-in microphones that you can use to talk to the integrated Google Assistant. Do you want your TV to have the best Wi-Fi connection? With Google Nest Wi-Fi, you can easily prioritize it via the app. Your own Wi-Fi network for your guests? No problem. Setup is quick and easy.
Apple Homekit
- IoT integrations
Apple Homekit offers certified Homekit smart accessories and enables the use of various sensors and push buttons. However, due to a more complex certification process and Apple's late appearance in this market, Homekit is lagging in terms of the number of IoT devices it supports. However, Apple carefully selected the devices it brought to the platform. For example, with the full family of EVE sensors activated, the only limit to your automation is your imagination. The local mileage of Homekit means that the response time of the sensors is significantly shorter than that of Google Nest.
- Smart Home Apps (visualization)
With Apple Homekit you can the Home App Add devices by scanning a special code. The Home app also has a Rooms tab that you can use to sort devices into different categories. You can invite other family members or friends who have an iOS device or Apple ID to join and get access to the smart home accessories. There is even the option to integrate other visualization apps, such as Elgato Eve, via the Homekit platform.
- Automations and routines
Apple Homekit provides routines called “Automations” and displays them on the main dashboard. Automations can be triggered by location, time or by smart home devices (including sensors). The platform even supports geofencing from your iOS devices or carOS.
- Hardware support
Apple Homekit offers HomePod, Apple Watch and the intelligent Siri assistant on iDevices such as iPhone, iPad and Apple TV / Siri remote control.
Conclusion
To sum up our research on voice control platforms, we can summarize the results in the following main points: Google Nest leads the way in terms of compatibility with IoT devices, while it competes against Apple for the best automation dashboard. Apple Homekit has the upper hand in the visualization game with the best home management dashboard, while lagging with the size of its ecosystem. Google Nest lacks a smart watch on the list of activated devices, while Apple defeated both competitors with its fully networked functions (geofencing etc.).
In any case, wizard platforms are a sign of a new era in home management and automation. And you must admit that with the thoughtful user experience of the Silicon Valley, smart homes couldn't be smarter.