As technology progresses, people have gotten more innovative, and as a result, technology has invaded numerous circles, which include both social and professional. However, even though all these technological advancements are widespread across various fields, several companies have tried to integrate them with one another. This leads to the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT). One of the main purposes of IoT is that it leads to a seamless connection between various devices, hardware, and software, hence leads to a better user experience.
Tech giant Google’s famous Google Assistant is a software, who’s main utility is to act like a digital assistant, who can get your tasks sorted for you, set reminders, show search results, etc. There are numerous devices that employ the Google Assistant as the virtual assistant service, such as devices having WearOS, Android, Google Home, Google Nest, etc.
Google Home vs Google Assistant
The main difference between Google Home and Google Assistant is that the Google Home is a smart speaker, which makes it a physical piece of technology, belonging to the hardware section, while the Google Assistant is a software that is compatible with the Google Home.
Comparison Table between Google Home and Google Assistant
| Parameters of Comparison | Google Home | Google Assistant |
| Physical Presence | Google Home is hardware and hence has a limited physical presence. | Google Assistant is software, and hence will be present on any device with which it is compatible. |
| Release Year | The first Google Home was released in November 2016. | Google Assistant released as Allo in May 2016. |
| Compatibility | Google Home is compatible with smart home devices, smartphones, and Google Assistant. | Google Assistant is supported by any device which has WearOS, Android, Google products, etc. |
| Users | 52 million Google Homes have been sold. | The Google Assistant has 500 million users. |
| Generations | The Google Home is the first generation of Google smart speakers, which evolved into Google Nest. | Google Assistant has no generations as such, it gets constantly updated to provide better search and results. |
What is Google Home?
Google Home is the first generation of smart speakers that have been made by Google which was released in November 2016. At the time around which Google released the Google Home, the smart speaker industry had already become quite trendy, and companies like Amazon had released their speakers, like Echo, which had already become insanely popular. Since Google already has a smart assistant, the Google Assistant by that time, it was a smart decision to release the smart speaker, which would have the Google Assistant integrated into it.
With the introduction of the Google Home, a lot of smart home features have now the option to be integrated with the speaker, and work in synchronicity with it. Suppose a person has smart-lighting in their home, so now they can control the brightness of the light by using just their voice. This feature might not be very necessary, however, it is certainly a useful one.
When the Google Home first released, it was of a cylindrical shape that had a few colored LED lights on top, which showed the current status of the device. Then about a year, later Google went on to release two variants of the original Home, which were the Google Home Mini, which was a smaller puck-shaped version of the Google Home, and the Google Home Max which was larger than the original Home.
After that, in 2019, the second generation of Google’s smart-speakers was released, and this generation of speakers was called Google Nest. The Nest brought about a sturdier design, better feedback, more microphones, and better connectivity. Since then, the Nest has been the latest smart-speaker offered by Google.