Google voice activated Home, Home Mini 'desi' smart speakers launched; prices start at Rs 4,499 on Flipkart

With India emerging as one of the biggest markets in the world of technology, the demand for new gadgets is strong. Looking to take advantage, Google today launched its voice-activated speakers "Home" and "Home Mini". The devices can facilitate people with their commute, play favourite songs and videos, plan daily schedule and lots more. Google Assistant-powered "Home" and "Home Mini" are priced at Rs 9,999 and Rs 4,499, respectively, and will be available for purchase online on Flipkart and at over 750 retail stores.
 
Speaking to media persons, Rishi Chandra, Vice President of Product Management and General Manager of Home Products, Google, said, "These products have been customised to match the needs of the Indian consumer and you will see that Google `Home` is truly `desi`. These understand Indian accents and will respond with uniquely Indian contexts." Google "Home Mini" is available in two colours of chalk and charcoal, while Google "Home" will reportedly be available initially in chalk only, and soon it will come with coral.
 
Google "Home" or Google "Home Mini" on Flipkart will come with a free JioFi router along with special offers on music subscriptions, said the company in a statement. Further, it added, "When buying a Google `Home` at Reliance Digital or MyJio stores, you get a free JioFi router with 100GB of high-speed 4G data (worth Rs 2,499)." 
 
The top surface of the devices has LEDs that light up when Google "Home" recognises "OK Google". Google "Home" has reportedly been designed with two microphones that utilise a technique called "neural beam forming" to enable accurate far-field voice recognition. 
 
It may be noted that Google has simulated hundreds of thousands of noisy environments and applied Machine Learning (ML) to recognise patterns that allow it to filter and separate speech from noise. 
 
Earlier, Google had launched the Assistant in Hindi in Allo, and brought the English Assistant to more phones, besides making a special version available for Reliance Jio feature phones. The Google Assistant lets us have a conversation with Google to help us get things done by telling us about our day, to finding the fastest route to work, or just setting an alarm for the next day all in Hindi. 
 
If you wish to try it out, just touch and hold the Home button or say "Ok Google" on smartphones and your personal Google Assistant will be ready to help you throughout the day. Even when your hands are full, you can quickly send text messages, set reminders, or get directions with the Google Assistant.
 
The Google Assistant is powered by machine learning, has reportedly been built on two decades of experience in search as well as natural language understanding, computer vision, and understanding user context.

(With Agency Inputs)