Two Months with a Google Home

So I first experienced a digital assistant a few months ago - it was an Alexa it was cool but as I  have not really bought into the Amazon services (No prime membership). I didn't feel that it was the best fit for me. One of the best parts of the digital assistant for me at the time was telling her (can you call it her?) was telling her to play music and powering on the TV to play a video on the FireTV.

So I was in search of an alternative the obvious one was a google home. Not wanting to jump in with too much commitment I picked up a home mini while it was on offer.

My initial impressions was that it was cool and much friendlier than alexa, the sound quality of the home mini was far better than the Echo dot too that was something I did not expect, not that it is a very difficult benchmark.

Digging a little deeper it was easy to set up with the ‘Home App’ once I had got the mini connected to the Wifi (Which seemed a little frustrating and required a few attempts).

So what does the Home Mini do?

These are the things that I use the Google home for.

-- Free calls in the UK to; UK mobiles and Landlines, you can even add you number too via the home app it so it shows as you personal number is dialing.

-- News updates

-- BBC Radio Playback

-- Spotify playback on Free and Premium plans

-- Play a limited selection of games.

-- Weather Forecast updates

-- Asking it questions

-- Alarms, Timers and Reminders

-- Youtube

-- TV control

-- Netflix

-- Connection to smart devices like smart plugs

-- Directions to a place sent to your phone

--Traffic to work 

-- Home group playback with multiple google home devices.

So that's quite a big list of things that it can do. The items I use the home for every days are:  Spotify, Reminders/ Alarms, Nexflix, Weather, news update & Smart device control (Turning on the lights).

Honestly saying it has changed my life is a little strong but honestly in many ways it has it allows me to do things that so that I no longer require to get my phone out to achieve. This is really useful when working outside of the office.

So do I like the Google Home Mini?

Well actually yes I do so much that 2 days later I bought a second!

Is there anything I do not like about the Home Mini?

Well if the music is on full volume of the TV is on fairly loud the mini may have difficulty hearing you but that for now seems to effect all digital assistants including the amazon echo plus and echo dot I tried out initially.