Undoubtedly Google Home does more than Amazon’s Echo and more features are added up regularly, but still, as a writer to this reputable website, I feel below are some of the relevant functionality users wishes to have in the product.
Before I proceed it is important to mention that Google Assistant works on Google Home and Amazon Alexa on Echo. Both are voice-assistant technologies of the two giants.
Shipment tracking
As of now Google Home cannot help you in tracking your order unlike Alexa where you just need to say “Alexa, where’s my stuff?” and she will brief where the package is and by when it will be getting delivered. It is not to forget such feature is available on phone through Google Assistant.
Delivery notifications
If you order a pizza from Domino’s Pizza the Google product has no such notification feature to inform you when your pizza is out for delivery. The feature is made available on Alexa. Hope Google soon come up with such feature to let us know when any product we order online is out for delivery from the restaurant or warehouse.
Voice remote
You can buy an Alexa Voice Remote to control the device from out of typical voice range, but condition is not the same with Google Home. You need to buy another Google Home device and it costs around $129. The Alexa Voice Remote costs just $30.
Third-party apps
To test Google Home as a developer you need to have a Google Assistant compatible Android phone. To test Alexa app and your skills on it you don’t need the related hardware. It can be done through a browser.
Charity donation
You can donate to charity through Amazon’s Alexa. Recently started, Amazon now facilitates donating between $5 and $5,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which is an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Other lesser known charities include American Heart Association. The same is not available on Google Home.
Schedule routines
With Alexa speakers you can schedule your multiple commands from a single one without having to tell it when required. Take this example that you want to play motivational song in the morning and turn on lights at desired time. These commands can be scheduled.
Apart from all these, let’s take a quick look to the basic commands of both the devices:
Google Home
“OK, Google, help” for asking help.
“OK, Google, turn it up,” “OK, Google, Louder” or “OK, Google, Turn it to 11” for controlling the volume. Maximum volume range is 11.
“OK Google, stop,” “Pause” or “Be quiet” for halting an action.
Alexa (Amazon Echo)
“Alexa, help” for asking help.
“Alexa, let’s chat” for having a conversation.
“Alexa, mute” or “Alexa, unmute” for muting or unmuting.
“Alexa, stop” or “Alexa, shut up” for stopping or pausing.
“Alexa, set the volume to 5,” “Alexa, louder” or “Alexa, turn up/down the volume” for changing the volume.