Digital voice assistants, smart speakers, and folding phones — if I didn’t know better, I’d say we’ve entered the sci-fi world Hollywood promised us for decades now. But while these products definitely provide some useful benefits, in many ways, we’re still waiting for that glorious utopia. I’ve been using smart speakers since the first Amazon Echo in 2014. I remember being blown away by the convenience it provided with quick answers, streaming music, and nailing simple tasks like timers. At the time, I thought to myself about how great having a Google variant inside one of these as the space matured.
Here we are, seven years since the first Google Home speaker hit store shelves in 2016, and the virtual assistant space really isn’t much better. Sure, you can spot improvements if you look close enough — Continued Conversation was, in some ways, a game changer — but nowhere near where I hoped we’d be in this amount of time. Sure, the hardware has improved, with better speakers and bigger displays, but it’s tough not to feel like Google’s efforts are in a standstill.
Even my favorite smart display, theNest Hub Max, is starting to feel sluggish now that it’s over four years old. And with the news that Google is severely limiting one of its best selling points byneutering Google Meet support and eliminating Zoom altogether, the future I once hoped for may be over before it ever arrives.
Once thriving, now dying
At one point in time, the list ofbest Google Assistant smart displayswas a lengthy one with options for multiple brands, each offering something different. Companies like JBL, Lenovo, Bose, and more offered features its company was well-known for with the addition of access to Google’s robust digital assistant. WithGoogle killing off support for third-party smart displaysback in April of this year, that list has dwindled significantly; the newest option on that list is now over two years old.
I’m not saying that a smart speaker or smart display is something that should get updated annually, but surely, we should be seeing more improvements here than we have so far. However, instead of providing long-term support, improved experiences, and new features, Google is removing them, limiting how Meet works on their displays and ditching Zoom entirely. And that’s not even factoring in the slow degrading of Google Assistant in its usefulness. Fromdisappearing support for notes and lists for third-party appsto thedeath of Assistant games, it feels like our displays are becoming more limited with each passing day.
I don’t know what Google is doing with the Assistant, but in the past 18 months, it has become very inconsistent and laggy.
All around, I think that companies making smart speakers are struggling to find the next phase for these devices. But I do feel that Amazon has a better grasp — or, at least, a willingness — on how to improve its physical and digital products than Google. When giving my Nest Hub Max, a screen that lives in my kitchen, a command that worked for years, “turn off the lights,” I regularly get one of two responses: “Turning off the Automower lights,” or “Sorry, I don’t know how to do that.” But if I ask it to turn off thekitchenlights, it’s more reliable. Making matters worse, my aging Nest Hub Max has becoming molasses-slow, with results being only marginally quicker on my phone. Setting reminders is about the same experience.
When Google brought out the"Look and Talk" feature for the Nest Hub Max, I thought the company was finally giving users something new, proving that it hadn’t forgotten about the product. Unfortunately, that excitement has been short-lived. All of Google’s smart displays also switched from Cast OS to Fuchsia throughout the last couple of years, which signaled what could have been a resurgence in the products. But in true Google fashion,Fuchsia OS for its speakers was killed offin July of this year, leaving the plans much more up in the air than I would’ve liked.
We should have seen this coming
What seems to be an impending demise of smart displays — even as Amazon works torevitalize Alexa alongside a new Echo Show 8— is pointing to what many fans of consumer tech and Google know but tend to forget: you can’t expect much or grow attached to anything Google provides. There is literally a site dedicated to keeping tabs oneverything that Google kills off. And while we did get a new tablet that can double as a smart display in thePixel Tablet, I don’t see it as anything other than a way to make an Android tablet more useful, given that these devices struggle against Apple’s iPad lineup. Even Google seems unwilling to call its latest slate a replacement for its aging Nest hardware, so I won’t be getting my hopes up.
Frankly, I’mfar from the only one feeling this way, especially after the last couple of years of non-action on Google’s part. I love the concept of smart home technology, especially as controlled through speakers and displays from the company behind Android. TheGoogle Home apphas greatly improved over the last year and has become my go-to app for managing all of my smart home devices in one place.
But even as the company pivots to AI, I’m stuck wondering how it views the smart device space as a whole,andhow it sees Assistant-powered devices fitting into it. From the outside looking in, it feels like the focus has been lost, and the ambient computing devices that have been relied upon to control it are being relegated to the graveyard. And unfortunately, that future I was so excited for might be left as an abandoned alternate universe.
Google Nest Hub Max
The Google Nest Hub Max is Google’s biggest smart display and an excellent smart home hub. With a wide range of compatibility across multiple smart home brands, you’ll be able to use the Nest Hub Max to automate your lighting, robot vacs, home security, and more.
Google Pixel Tablet
Looking for a smart home hub that can double as a gaming tablet? Google’s Pixel Tablet fits the bill. It flaunts a 10.9-inch IPS LCD screen, backed by the power of the Google Tensor G2 chipset and 8GB RAM for a snappy experience. Its camera setup includes an 8 MP rear and front camera, perfect for capturing those spontaneous moments or crystal-clear video calls.
Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen, 2023)
Amazon’s next-gen Echo Show 8 combines more smart home goodness, a new camera location, and spatial audio to make it potentially one of the best smart displays we’ve seen in a long time — not that the bar is particularly high these days.
