More compatible devices and improvements to the AI will only improve things – just don’t expect it to be a top-notch music speaker.We've been talking a lot lately about how Project Fi can save you money, but your Android phone isn't the only place where Google's offerings can make an impact. It is primarily a good voice assistant, with the ability to control other devices. While it’s not quite the perfect experience, it’s hard to complain too much about what the Home Mini does. Provided you don’t veer too far from basic diary, weather and search queries, Google’s knowhow ensures you will hear a search result, even if it’s not quite sure of the answer. It’s every bit as good at hearing you as Echo devices, and for the typical sort of questions, it understands you more often than not, and also tends to have an answer. Google Assistant’s abilities will be familiar to anyone with an Android phone or tablet and are largely impressive. If you want to play music, the better sonic balance means it’s fine but don’t expect it to go particularly loud or be anything more than an average sounding speaker. Voices are full and clear, and it’s perfectly listenable when it comes to talk radio or voice answers – and this is the speaker’s primary use. Sonically, the Google Home Mini sounds noticeably better than the Echo Dot. What is Google Chromecast? Which speakers and TVs are supported?Īnd it all works pretty well.In terms of services, you can get news and sport updates from the BBC, Sky, Reuters, CNN and more, and you can control YouTube, Netflix and Spotify among others. Sony, B&O, Philips and Polk are on board with selected hardware, however. Sonos, for example, is not yet on board, though the Sonos One, which currently supports Amazon’s Alexa, is due to get Google Assistant later this year. What else you can do is largely dependent on compatible services and devices – the former is pretty thorough, the latter relies heavily on Google’s Chromecast ecosystem. You can send music from your Tidal app to the Google Home Mini or play/pause Netflix on a compatible TV, for example, and can group multiple Chromecast devices for multi-room music. The lack of Bluetooth is negated by the presence of Google Chromecast, which allows you to connect to and control compatible apps and services, such as Tidal, Netflix and YouTube. There’s no aux output, so you can’t connect to a better pair of speakers or your music system, and there’s also no Bluetooth output. Like Amazon’s Alexa devices, much of the connectivity is handled by the app – though there’s less of it in general.
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