
Google Home and Home Mini Bluetooth speakers have been announced in India. The Google Assistant-powered speakers will be made available via Flipkart online and across 750 retail stores offline. Google Home price in India is Rs 9,999 while Home Mini costs Rs 4,499. To recall, Google Home and Mini were unveiled at the company’s I/O 2016 conference and this is the first time that the search giant has launched its speakers in India. Both the devices were launched alongside Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones.
Google Home and Home Mini can be activated by saying ‘Ok Google’. Google Home works with Android TVs as well and can be used to control Netflix. Google Home and Home Mini ship with six months of ad-free music experience by Saavn and Gaana. Users can ask Home things like how long will it take to reach a place, horoscope, weather, and more. Google has partnered with NDTV, Times of India, Aaj Tak and Dainik Bhaskar in India for news content. One can also connect their Google Home to the Google Chromecast. Google Home also works with YouTube.
Also read: Google Home, Home Mini speaker come to India: Everything you need to know
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People who purchase Google Home or Home Mini via Reliance Retail Limited Store will get a free JioFi device. Jio customers will also get instant 100GB additional data. The company will give out 10 vouchers of 10GB data, which will be credited to the user's My Jio account. The validity of 100GB additional data will be one year from the date of credit.
Google Home is cylindrical smart speaker, not larger than regular Bluetooth speakers these days. Half the speaker’s body is the grille covered by a fabric which might be a bit of an issue in the dust bowl that is India. The one feature we were really impressed by was the music quality of the speaker. Read first impressions of Google Home here.
READ | Google Home first impressions: The early days of smart
Google Home and Home Mini can be activated by saying 'Ok Google'. Users can ask Google Home things like how long it takes to get to a place, trivia and fun facts. You can also ask Google Assistant for the horoscope of the day and play latest news. Google Assistant can be used to control Netflix, provided you have a chromecast on the TV. Of course, it will work with Android TVs as well. The list of supported devices in India is not yet confirmed
Google Home works with Saavn, Gana, Youtube and Netflix for streaming. Of course, Google Play Music is also supported. Saavn is ad-free for six months on Google Home along with Gaana.
Google Home and Home Mini will two microphones and four LEDs. The devices are available for starting today and will be Flipkart exclusive online. Google Home price in India is Rs 9,999 while Home Mini will cost Rs 4,499. Google Home and Mini will also be made available at 750 other offline retail stores. The speakers come with six months free access to Google Play music and special offers from Gaana and Saavn. Hindi support for Google Home and Mini to come later.
Google Home gives real-time answers to a lot of questions. Google Home can also be used to dim the lights. Of course, these need to be Smart lights. Google Home can be used to locate your phone as well.
Google Home will also have four News partners In India - Ndtv, Times of India, Aaj Tak and Dainik Bhaskar. One can also connect their Google Home to the Google Chromecast.
Google Home and Home Mini announced in India. Google conducting on-stage demo for Google Home. The speaker can apparently be used to call up recipes. One can also use Google Home to check if their local store is open or not. Users can ask for step by step instructions for recipes on Google Home.
Rishi Chandra VP of Product Management on stage now. "Voice is becoming an increasingly common way for computing. Google Assistant goes further than search. It can understand context. Google Assistant is available in India in Hindi and English. It has one million capabilities in India. We have 4.5 lakh marriage proposals to Google Assistant from India," says Chandra.
Rajan Anandan is on stage. He is VP India and South East Asia. “Voice input covers more than a 1 billion consumers in 119 languages all around the world today," he says. "This voice input feature is available on a large number of devices, even budget phones. In India, voice input is exploding. Users prefer to rely on voice, instead of typing in India," says Anandan. "Google Assistant was launched two years ago. It is a way to get things done. It is now available on 400 million devices globally," reveals Anandan. "We are expanding the Google Voice assistant capability to India."
Google is set to announce its two Assistant-powered speakers in India. Expect the launch event to start at any moment now. Google Home and Mini price in India will also be announced by the search giant at the event. The device will be exclusive to Flipkart online. Whether Home and Home Mini will be made available offline is unclear at this point.
Google Home and Home Mini launch in India will take place today. Users can register their interest in the speakers by heading to Flipkart, which has already listed the devices. Google Home and Mini can be used to control Smart Home, play music, cast video, ask for weather, and more. Of course, Google Home will be priced higher, while the Home Mini price in India could be below Rs 4,000.