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Google Home is basically the same idea as Amazon Echo. but there will definitely be things that each can do that the other can't. For example, most likely you won't be able to access each other's services... so on Google Home you most likely won't be able to order items from the amazon store or use Amazon Music... and likewise on the Echo won't be able to use Google Play Music or, more importantly, Google Search (which is far superior to Echo's search). Support for 3rd party services and Smart Home devices - The Echo has been out for about 2 years now which has given it a head start with developers to build support for these services and Smart Home devices. Currently Google Home only supports, nest, SmartThings, Philips Hue, and IFTTT for Smart Home devices... but I definitely wouldn't write off Google Home just because it doesn't support as many Smart Home devices as Echo right now, because I honestly believe Google Home will catch up very fast, especially given amount of 3rd party developer support Google already has. A couple big things that Google has created to help developers build upon is two open platforms called Google Assistant and Actions on Google... with these two platforms developers will be able to do a lot of cool, fun, and useful things with Google Home, which will not only work on Google Home devices but they'll also work on Google Pixel phones... so you can also tell Google Assistant on your Pixel phone to turn on outside lights. One area with connected devices I think Google has the leg up on the Echo is Google Home's support for Google Cast... with this you'll be able to Cast audio from your smartphone to a Google Home device and, even better, you'll also be able to Cast both audio and video from Google Home to devices that support Google Cast, like Chromecast... so you can tell Google Home to, "play CSI on the Living Room TV" and CSI will start playing on Netflix through Chromecast on your living room TV. Another area I think Google Home will be much better at is Searches. I currently have the Echo (which I think is great and use all the time), but I get frustrate with it because far too often it can't answer my questions. When the Echo can't answer my question I'll pull out my android phone and ask Google Now the same question and most of the time I get an answer to my question from Google. My wife gets frustrated with the Echo too, because she like to ask Alexa for recipes, and Alexa has never once been able to give her a recipe. Since Google Home uses the same search service I have little doubt that Google Home's searches will be far superior to the Echo searches. The last area I think Google Home will be better is, unlike the Echo currently, the Google Home devices will know about each other and work together... so when you have two Home devices within listening range of each other and you say "Ok Google" they'll work together to determine which devices is closest to you and will respond from that device only... and supposedly it'll also try to determine if you're talking to your android phone or a Home device when you say "Ok Google". Also you can create groups with Google Home devices, and Cast enabled devices, to play audio at the same time across devices in the group. The big question I have is how well will Google Home hear your voice compared to the Amazon Echo. Because the Echo does a very very good job hearing and understanding your words... although this is not the same thing as giving good search results. I'm hoping Google Home is as good at understanding your words from across the room.
