The purpose of smart home speakers like Google Home is not just so you don’t have to pick up your phone to know and do stuff, but to make your life more convenient when you’re doing other things and need to do another thing. One of those other things that you sometimes need to do is calling people, and now, through your Google Assistant on your Google Home smart speaker, you can actually do it and do it for free.
Residents in the US and Canada will now be able to make free, hands-free calls to their contacts, just by saying, “Hey Google, call ________”. The calls will then be made not through your cellular connection but through your Wi-Fi. As long as their name or number is in your contacts or the number of the business is publicly listed, then you will be able to make that call. Google Assistant will be able to recognize your voice so if you say, “Call Dad” it should know that it’s your dad you’re calling.
Those that will receive your calls will see “Unknown” or “No Caller ID” when you contact them. But if you’re a Google Voice or Project WiFi subscriber, then you can set it up on your settings that the recipient will see your number when you call. The Assistant settings can be accessed through the Google Home app that you install on your smartphone.
Google Home is still trying to make a dent in the home speaker market which is dominated by Amazon Echo devices. Having the ability to make free calls should give it a good advantage over the others in the growing market.
SOURCE: Google
With the Google Home when I say call mom it just knows my mom versus when my wife it knows her mom and then my kids it knows their mom is to call my wife.
It just knows and something the Echo can just NOT do for anything. I purchased my Echo in late 2014 and now had it almost 3 years and it still can NOT do this! What gives? Google Home has only been out 6 months and already has far more functionality.
But all of this is rather moot. The HUGE issue is the Echo still requires commands versus the Google Home you just talk naturally. Really everything else is insignificant. At it’s core the Echo is flawed compared to the Google Home.
The fact the Echo requires commands is why it never integrated in our home and the Google Home is well integrated. I was motivated to sit down and memorize the Echo commands but my family never was.