Emanuel Karlsten: "Google's home is incredibly good – like an egg clock"



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Today, Google's smart speaker has been released in Swedish. For almost two years, I have tested it at home. Fixed in English.

So everything will change now?

Yes, if you like someone to follow your music or when your eggs are ready.

I do not know what triggered the advance purchase. But far too early, via an American proxy, I bought a smart Google speaker.

A robot at home. Someone to talk to. Maybe I thought I was the future of the tracks? Maybe we could brag about our guests at home? However, when today's smart Google home speaker came out in Swedish, he gave me a head start in understanding its consequences. And I am a little skeptical.

Google home is powered by the command "Hello Google" and you place your order. It may be playing music, getting a weather forecast or controlling other things in the house.

For the first time, I was obsessed with connecting all my house. I bought wireless bulbs because now the light would be controlled by voice commands. I bought wireless speakers, hooked up to the telly on the cast iron chrome dongle (as was the case before). Everything could be controlled by the voice, the future was there!

There was an early element of "wow" that should not be underestimated. This is the boost we are looking for every time we buy all these strange gadgets. Wow – it works. Wow – that's fun. Wow – it's easy!

After a while, it will of course be less amazing and more everyday. And it is at that point that you can make a real assessment – what was gimmick and what led to a change in behavior?

After almost two years of using Google Home, some things have changed at home: the whole family uses Google Home to play music. By connecting our Spotify account (the other services also work), just ask "Hello Google, Listen to music", read it last, or Google music, I think, appreciate.

For all my family, this is now obvious. "Play Dolly style" or "play jazz" and Google serves us quickly. The volume and the "next song" are treated in the same way, as is the "Play throughout the house" command that connects to our other wireless speakers. Or just in the "girl's room", if desired.

The second is a timer. We no longer have an egg bell, but when we cook, cook eggs or anything, we ask Gooogle to sound an alarm in x number of minutes. Amazingly helpful!

The features we rarely use are the weather of the day, the time that it is or the latest news. The latter was used more frequently during Swedish media membership. Swedish radio is only at the end of the year when they paired Ecot and another radio program at Google's home. The Omnis News podcast joined the group for the first time today, 24 October, as part of the product launch in Sweden.

Google's search services in the home are cryptic. Asking "how much live in Sweden" or "the highest point in Australia" is a silly thing to talk to with your smart device. At the same time, our kids love to ask "what a kiss looks like", especially when they have friends at home. And it's also fun to play anecdotes with Google Home sometimes.

And these are the objections.

How much does it really affect?

Yes, it is clear that voice guidance is here to stay and that it will spread to us. And as it goes without saying – and services are smarter – it will definitely grow in more areas. It's easy to imagine that with voice commands, I create a shopping list, which then adds food to my cart at Mat.se.

It is just as easy to see that I can buy other things in the same way. Already today, I can order an Uber via Google home.

But if these things work, I feel that it helps me.

For example, my wireless lights have not been used. It was easier to press the buttons than to talk to a device (which does not always see me) so that the lights are off or off.

And the connection to the TV was difficult. Of course, the idea of ​​playing the right section on Netflix was good, but often I want to find it manually and I can not play with Google to find them properly. Remote control is easier.

Outside, it seems that the only thing that has changed in practice is that we now allow Google and Spotify to choose music according to the genre we want to listen to and that we do not have an egg clock. .

On the other hand, it has now become clear to all parts of the family that technology is controlled through our voice, opening up greater influence.

I do not think smart speakers will change the whole Internet. I do not even think it should interfere with existing structures. I think more than every company and every media should offer us more ways to control technology than through the fingers and text.

This idea can be quite revolutionary.

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