Find out what testers had to say about the new Google Home. £300 voucher to be won!NOW CLOSED

[PoppyMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for those MNers who tested the new Google Home worth £129.

Here’s what Google has to say about the product: “The time we get to spend at home with our family and friends is pretty special. So what if technology could help us make the most of those moments, instead of sometimes pulling our attention away from them? Google Home is a hands-free smart speaker powered by the Google Assistant that does just that. Whether you want to get answers from Google, enjoy your music*, manage your everyday tasks and control compatible smart devices around your home, all you have to do is say “Ok Google”.

*Google Home is optimised for selected music services only. Subscriptions/payments may be required.

Below is a video about the product:

Testers:
These are the feedback questions Google would like you to answer:

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?
2. What do you think about the music playing functionality?
3. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?
4. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?
5. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?
6. What do you wish Google Home could do that it doesn't do currently?

Everyone who posts will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher.

Many thanks,

MNHQ

Standard T&Cs apply

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

Yes, and it even went into a lot more detail than I thought it would.

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

We all love it. Love that it will play any song you ask for. Except the one time I asked it to play relaxing music it played a song about turning into a vampire and eating all your friends

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

Only that my husband doesn't have to set up his mac book to play music and don't have to google the weather forecast.

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

Being able to put music on with just saying 'play a song' and my son loves asking it random questions.

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

It sometimes randomly starts listening as if someone has said 'ok google' when there is no noise at all. Also when it is on full volume you have to manually turn the volume down as it can't hear you talking to it which can be very annoying.

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

No - I expected it to be able to answer calculations (basic ones even), find cinema times and opening hours for a locall pub. It couldn't. It gave weird answers that went off at a tangent or "sorry I cannot do that yet"

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

It was fine for digital music stations. I don't have Spotify, I have Amazon prime music and iTunes neither of which it is compatible with

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

My 6 year old spends less time on the iPad and loves playing the trivia and crystal ball game with google. She says goodnight to it every night!

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

The trivia quiz - we all play it as a family

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

Lots of things. The lack of compatibility with previously mentioned services and Hive. The set up was awful. I'm very tech minded but I gave up on set up after 2 hours of trying & following all the troubleshooting. Spoke with google support only to go through exactly the same steps with the same results. It finally connected to wifi itself after 10 hours which rather zapped the initial excitement of getting it. I don't like that you can't create diary appointments or to do lists or memos as this is how I'd get the most use from it.

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had? No, sometimes it didn't understand us. It did answer the ones it understood though!
2. What do you think about the music playing functionality? I couldn't seem to get it to do it? we don't have any music subscriptions so maybe that's why?
3. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home? No not really, although it makes a great weather checker.
4. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home? Asking about the weather to plan the next days outfits. DH loves it though as a gadget.
5. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

It doesn't always understand what you're saying, and just says I can't do that..

Want to say a big thanks for giving it to us to test though do we get to keep it? DH may take it to work for the office to enjoy!

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?
A fair few of them yes. Certainly anything the kids asked. DH asked it really obscure things and it said it couldn't do it yet. But tbh, most of the English speaking world couldn't have answered his weird questions! Generally though, it was good and I appreciate that it's still learning. And it doesn't speak Irish!

2. What do you think about the music playing functionality?
We all love it! We're an Apple household so yes it was a bit annoying that it doesn't work with iTunes although that's to be expected. I don't have a music subscription so I've signed up for Google music and transferred all my own stuff across and it's working well. May well continue after the free trial. I love being able to name a random song and it'll play it, or play me something relaxing etc. And it's great for the radio. DH even found his random hospital radio station on it.

3. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?
I wouldn't say changed. I play a lot more music and ask it things that I would have gone to the phone for. Intend to use it for recipes so will give it a few months and then I'll probably buy at least one more for the kitchen. We don't have Chromecast but I can see us getting that so it'll work with the tv.

4. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?
Listening to the kids coming up with all sorts of random questions for it. And they're both asking words in different languages.

5. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?
Only that the kids keep interrupting my music and changing it to Taylor Swift . Set up was mildly frustrating but nothing major, no worse than anything else I've set up.

Thank you for the opportunity to try it, we really love it.

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

No sadly, even quite simple questions it can't reliably answer, even when we reframe the question a few times.

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

Love the speaker quality and google play is great. I have a small baby and it's amazing being hands free, the voice controls are brilliant for music and radio. I've listened to so much more music and radio since having it. google play also seems to find all the weird and wonderful music I love. I also ask it to play nursery rhymes which the baby loves.

It's a real shame that it's not compatable with iTunes or amazon prime as all my music is on there on my phone.

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

Yes! Much more music and radio. Being able to get news headlines and weather forecasts quickly has been nice too.

My kids have worked out how to add Radom things to the shopping list!

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

It's still quite new (we've had it two weeks) so we are having fun testing it. My 9 year old loves talking to it and testing its knowledge out.

Unlike many other testers we found setting it up was really really easy for us - very straight forward.

I like the fact it remembers what we were asking it for one question to the next, for example you can say 'how is the weather today', and once it's answered you can ask 'and on Friday', without needing to use the word weather again.

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

The 'sorry I can't help with that yet' answer to many simple questions is annoying! We hear this to often.

I dropped it heavily onto stone tiles when getting it out of the box - the packaging is lovely but the box fell open...it didn't break thank goodness!

Thank you so much to mumsnet and google for the chance to test this out. It's been so much fun for my husband, our children and I and it's such a great thing to have when you have a small baby - hands free is the way forward! Thank you

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had? no sometimes it said that my team are working on it.
2. What do you think about the music playing functionality? the music is very loud and good quality but it is erroring if you connect to spotify which is not very helpful but you can still get the radio on it.
3. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home? not really because it cant connect to our lights but it is very fun to play with and if you unplug the device it will turn off so i think this could be changed.
4. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home? the most fun was it singing its own song and giving funny feedback from you question. it is also fun because you can set your nickname to it.
5. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home? The frustrating thing is that it cant answer some questions and it doesn't have many features on the app. it is very hard to add devices aswell.

my sons wrote this review as they have enjoyed testing it out. Thanks so much for the opportunity to try this,we have had a fun half term week with it. I will be asking it some more questions when i get a chance as the boys have pretty much taken it over at the moment!

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had? No, not quite. It does pretty well though! Normally rephrasing the question meant you could get an answer.

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality? It's great. We've got a Google play subscription and it works very well. I like that you can just ask it to play you a song and it chooses something at random. We've had some strange songs! The sound quality is amazing for something so small.

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home? We've had a lot more music and radio on. It makes it so easy to swap between stations and songs. I've used the timer and alarm functions a lot too. Saves going to find my phone constantly. I like asking it how long my journeys will take too. Means I know how the traffic is.

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home? My dd asking it questions. She thinks she has a friend in the kitchen now.

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home? Occasionally it has little freak outs. For example it would play podcasts one day then the next said it couldn't do that. Also that when the volume is up it can't hear you shouting at it so you have to manually turn it down.

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

I was quite I,pressed with how many of our questions it could answer. I struggled to get it to give me updates on the latest tennis results from the French open though.

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

I signed up for the free trial if Google Play and I LOVE it.

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

We are listening to a lot more music which is brilliant.

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

I love the fact that it's hands free. Plus it can play nursery rhymes for my little one whilst I'm busy preparing his dinner. We also love the lame jokes and the trivia quiz.

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

Yes unfortunately even though we are very good with technology in our house it took a while to set up. I tried to use googles online chat support and they were no help at all. I also feel we have been restricted on which room we can place the Google Home in as it seems to need to be within a limited distance to our router.

Almost forgot - thank you so much for letting us test this product. We probably wouldn't have purchased something like this in the next year or so but now we love it!!!

Went to pick it up today (was on holiday/ caring for sick mum last week) and then straight on to a course this Monday. By the time I made it to the parcelforce depot to collect today I was told it had been sent back yesterday). Gutted...

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?
No, there were some things it could not answer for example: the kids math homework, whats the best fidget spinner, what the winning lottery numbers will be on Saturday. It was good with explaining certain grammar terms through use of Wikpedia, but was not able to give examples. Google was helpful with translation and weather updates. It could not tell us the names of King Henry the 8ths wives.

2. What do you think about the music playing functionality?
We love the music function, my son tends to ask it to play the same songs over and over -"ok google play 21 pilots, ride". I appreciated the ability to play baby tunes and lullaby's. My daughter loves singing so this is helpful to quickly play a tune to practice, though it could not understand some requests.

3. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home? I like adding to the shopping list, setting an alarm, checking the weather. We are playing music more and listening to the news. It means I can keep up to date whilst changing a nappy or feeding baby. Its nice not to have to get up while breast feeding! Hubby wants to get the lights and Chromecast and likes to add stupid things to the shopping list like hemorrhoid cream.

4. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?
I like that it is easy access to information when I'm busy with baby. The quiz kept the kids amused. Asking quick questions to help with homework is great. The crystal ball is fun. The kids love asking strange questions.

5. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home? pronunciation sometimes is hard for the kids to interpret, for example when google said "petulant". Google assistant only selects one website to give info from, only a selection is provided and a link is sent. Setting up was strange, and did not work at first, I had to leave it and come back to it later. The phone App is not very easy to understand. I forget to say 'ok google' when following up on a previous question that was not fully answered.

Thank you Google it is great- from the kids and me xx

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

No. Google often often told us they were still learning. We were hoping to be able to ask for TV schedule.

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

Generally pretty good. Sometimes struggled with unconventional band/artist names. Picked up ok Google command even when music was quite loud. Speaker quality is quite good.

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

We have been listening to more music in the living room (where we have put the Google home device). I have found the weather reports very useful too.

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

Easily accessible music. Answering trivia quickly.

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

Oops pressed send to early...

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

Would like to access TV schedule and to control the TV without Chromecast

*1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?
*
It manages to answer a majority of our questions depending on how we word them. When answering questions from my daughter it only struggles with questions on medieval times!! I absolutely love the fact I can just ask for the bus times, the weather, the time, set timers, news, add to shopping list etc, it is truly wonderful, we all love it

*2. What do you think about the music playing functionality?
*
This is amazing, I usually can't be bothered to faff about putting music on, I signed up for the free trial of Google music and will definitely continue with this as we all love being able to just ask for whatever you fancy to listen to, also love the fact it continues to play others in the same genre. It's even able to find songs by the lyrics if you can't remember the actual song title. The sound quality is amazing.

*3. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?
*
Yes, I now don't burn the dinner as it's so easy to set timer, also don't have to worry about losing shopping lists as it kindly saves it in the app on my phone for me. We all listen to lots more music

*4. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?
*
Music definitely the music and the quiz trivia, we are finding testing her personality is quite fun, daughter likes asking it questions she knows it can't answer i.e "make me a sandwich " which it replies it can't help with that. If you ask again straight away it makes a magic wand sound and says "your a sandwich " daughter thinks this is soooo funny

*5. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?
*
Yes, it's a shame she can't do reminders yet, hopefully something Google are working on, and the app could be a bit easier to navigate .
Can be quite frustrating when she cuts off half way through a sentence, but it's getting better at not doing this.

Huge thanks to Mumsnet and Google for letting us trial this, we love it, she is now very much part of the family
P.s i loved the packaging, the hinged box was gorgeous, I was very impressed.
Also we found set up very very easy.

Thank you for letting us test Google home, it's my 3yo DS's new best friend It has also helped with his speech development.

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

Unfortunately, no. It couldn't tell me what time the Grand Prix qualifying started, what time Casualty was on that night and various other questions.

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

We loved Google music and we have been listening to loads more than usual. What I would say is that Google's response when asking it to play something wouldn't be seamless. It would often cut off halfway through its sentence then start playing the song anyway.

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

Yes, every morning it gets asked for the weather forecast, what is on the shopping list and what the news headlines are. It also gets asked the time if we are rushing to get out the door. I love the fact it is hands free too as it means I can change the song, turn it up/down when I'm doing the washing up.

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

We discovered the quiz last night so have had fun playing that. My 3yo also likes asking it to tell him a joke

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

The app seems to be a bit of an afterthought. It isn't very well designed at all and took me a while to find my shopping list.

Yes should have said, the app isn't that great. It's not intuitive at all and things that should be easy to find seem to be buried out of sight.

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had? At first she was a little confused, but most questions were answered.
2. What do you think about the music playing functionality? Good once connected but took a while to set that up. Did instantly convey to the radio though. Sound quality is excellent and volume can be controlled from your phone so made it easy to turn it down if children messed with it!
3. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home? Yes, the timer was very useful when cooking and it was easy to access reminders and calendar so used my phone less. Plus having music available without accessing my phone and being able to stop it from voice activation was really useful.
4. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home? The children loved asking it questions and jokes. They were able to use it easily.
5. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home? That some things it can't understand or when it mishears what is asked and gives a random answer.

Overall I think we will purchase another even if it's just for the music, as the sound quality is great, and can be controlled from a phone when not in the room. We're very happy with ours and glad we got to test it, as I don't think I would have purchased before testing.

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

Yes, so far it has had an answer for everything. We've only really asked it silly questions, but I imagine it will come in handy for random general knowledge

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

We are LOVING the music, the speakers sound good, it's so handy to just speak either a specific track name or just saying "OK Google, play some Vance joy" we've signed up for the free trial of google music and I will have a major dilemma when the trial is up as I'm an Amazon Prime subscriber . It's particularly brilliant if you just fancy listening to a particular song. 5yr old ds has been using it the most funnily enough, he loves asking for Adele, Ed Sheeran, Twenty One Pilots, Panic at the disco!

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

I'm constantly setting timers as two of my dc always want turns on the laptop so they get 30mins each on the timer. Works a treat! Also, I now have my shopping list set up so I don't need to write it out every week.

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

The music, definitely. And asking if it's better than Alexa or not

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

The main thing I've noticed that is missing is that it can't set reminders. Timers are all well and good but I really really want a reminder function. E.g. I said "ok Google, remind me to run a bath in 15 minutes" no dice or "remind me to leave to pick up dc in 10 minutes" cannot do. It's the one thing I would change. I'd also like it to be able to send texts.

Overall though I am completely loving Google home, it's a brilliant addition and as more functionality gets added it's just going to get better and better. Very very easy to set up and link to my Google account, looks great, sounds great, can recognise anyone's voice (even ds who runs words together a lot)

1. Was google home able to answer all the questions you had?

For the most part yes. Daughter loved asking all sorts of questions on animals etc and I found it useful when we had random questions come up at dinner-fun to be able to effectively search the internet without having to break my no screens at the table rule! Like any search engine it can take a couple of goes to word the question correctly but that was to be expected.

2.what do you think about the music playing functionality? We don't currently use any of the compatible services so for us the free trial was handy and we may consider continuing as its so easy to use. Sound I very impressive given its size. We also use it as our radio now as again its so easy and has everything.

3.has anything changed in your home routine changed since using Google home
Yes. We use it as our radio now. Also we use it everyday to check travel/weather and journey times which is brilliant .
4.what are you finding most fun about using Google home?
We love the trivia game and being able to ask random questions. Generally it s just a fun thing to use even when it doesn't know!

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google home?

Well it would be good if it could send texts or emails and if it could use more than one google account. It feels a bit like a work in progress with some requests met with "I'm working on it" etc but nothing major really.we are also struggling to find its personality...bit more Siri like interaction would be fun!

Generally though we love it. Its aesthetically pleasing and fun to use. We feel really lucky to have had the chance to try it so thank you!!

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

I have been pretty impressed with this function of Google Home. It answers most of our questions although sometimes has difficulty understanding my dh's regional accent.

1. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

I love the music element of Google Home - it's what we are enjoying most about it. I love how quickly it starts playing a song, and the range of music available.

1. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

We have used it for a shopping list - great idea as we can both add to the list throughout the week.

1. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

The music

1. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home

It has difficulty understanding my dh's regional accent. It also doesn't pick up voices when playing music loudly.

1. Lots, but not all of them.

1. We really liked the music playing functionality but it would mean paying £10 a month subscription because it isn't compatible with my iTunes account. In reality, I wouldn't be willing to pay this. The music function is what we've been using it for most of all, and the speakers are good.
2. Not really, I'm afraid.
3. We really like the music function and that it can tell jokes. We also like when we ask it to sing for us - that's quite funny!
4. The set-up was awful. I'm quite good at tech normally and it took me a good hour and a half to get it sorted. The app kept crashing and I had to keep coming back to it.

There were quite a few things we asked it to do that it couldn't yet. It would be nice if it could tell stories (like traditional tales) or if it could be used as an e-reader. When asked to play music, I'd prefer it didn't do the whole talking spiel at the beginning and just went straight into it.

Thanks for letting us test this. It's an interesting piece of kit but, having tested it, not something I'd pay full price for with its limited functionality.

Thank you for your feedback so far!

Google has one additional question they'd like you to answer - What do you wish Google Home could do that it doesn't do currently?

What do you wish Google Home could do that it doesn't do currently? I'd like it to do a quiz aimed at children. Dd1 loves it but I have to feed her the answers which sort of defeats the point! Also it would be good if it could recognise different voices.

I would like to add that set up was really easy for us. It literally took 10 minutes to get everything working. It seems like there was a day when Google were having problems but mine didn't arrive until everything had been sorted out so it was seamless.

1. Was Google Home able to answer all the questions you had?

No. To be honest we got fed up with it telling us it couldn't help with that yet. Nearly 4yo DS was disappointed it couldn't answer some of his (admittedly v random) questions.

2. What do you think about the music playing functionality?

Speaker quality is awesome. Loved that it could hear me from the kitchen whilst in the living room. V disappointing I can't use my music on Amazon as I'm a Prime member and all my music is there. I only use it for the radio and haven't thought to ask for a 'relaxing song' for example.

3. Has anything in your home routine changed since using Google Home?

Nothing. To be honest, I'm not sure what to use it for! I have a digital radio downstairs already and have occasionally asked the weather. I expected it to be able to set appointments in my calendar and/or make lists. I also thought it would be useful if I could tell it to say things from my phone. Eg, if I'm out I could ask my phone to tell Google Home to tell DH I'm on my way home. Or could I utilise the 'Find my phone' feature and have it tell me where my phone is? Apparently I would get more use out of it in my kitchen - I need to move it...

4. What are you finding most fun about using Google Home?

The music, asking it to make animal noises, jokes.

5. Is there anything you're finding frustrating about using Google Home?

When it tells us it can't help right now. It happens too often. Agree it seems like it's a work in progress somehow. DH was hoping it would be able to add reminders to his own Google calendar but that wouldn't work. Seems like we would get more use out of it if we used Chromecast. Also the app is almost pointless.

Thank you for allowing us to test this out however!

What do you wish Google Home could do that it doesn't do currently?

I think I answered this anyway but here goes:

Have some way of accessing my Amazon Prime music
Set appointments/reminders
Ability to ask the app to ask Google Home to announce things eg "Creme is on her way home", "Can you text Creme re .... "
Ability to utilise Find My Phone - "Google is my phone in the house?"
Able to use more than one Google account