Google is in a race with Amazon: A race to see which company will be the first to take over your home. At one end, you have Amazon Alexa and all the Alexa-enabled products. On the other end, you have Google Assistant and all the Assistant-enabled products. Amazon was first to market with an Alexa-enabled smart display, the Amazon Echo Show, but Google followed up at this year’s CES by announcing that several partners like Lenovo and JBL would be releasing their own Google Assistant smart displays. Now, Google has unveiled their own smart display, called the Google Home Hub.

Google Home Hub Features

The Google Home Hub is actually based on the Google Cast platform, the same platform used for the Chromecast. The Google Home Hub smart display adds a screen to the voice-only Google Home smart speakers. Specifically, the Home Hub has a 7-inch touchscreen LCD panel to show you information cards with details to accompany Google Assistant’s voice response. It can show answers to your queries like the current weather, traffic on the way to work, what reminders you’ve set, what’s on your shopping list, what’s on the news, and much more.

Certain commands like placing a phone call are also supported, provided you’re placing a domestic phone call in the U.S. and Canada. You can also control your smart home appliances such as viewing video feeds from your Nest Cam, controlling your Hue lights, and more. It’s essentially an Android tablet with far better microphones and speakers - a perfect centerpiece for your kitchen or nightstand. To help you better control all your devices, the Google Home app on Android will be getting a new design, as we first detailed several months back.

The Google Home Hub also lets you use apps like Google Duo (voice calls), Google Photos (view photos and albums), YouTube (stream video)*, Google Play Music (stream music), Google Play Movies (stream TV and movies), Google Maps (see the traffic), and Google Calendar (see your agenda). Third-party services are of course supported - the Home Hub has access to a large number of services that integrate with Google Assistant. For example, supported audio services include Pandora and Spotify while supported video services include HBO Now and Crackle. With the incredible success of the Google Home and Home Mini, we expect to see many more services integrate with Google Assistant in the future.

Live Albums is a new Google Photos feature for the Home Hub that automatically creates new albums automatically and continues to add photos to them automatically. Live Albums uses machine learning to pick the best photos for you automatically.

Google Home Hub

*Google Home Hub owners get 6 months of free YouTube Premium.

Google Home Hub Specifications

As we mentioned previously, the Google Home Hub has a 7-inch touchscreen LCD panel. It supports 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz) Wi-Fi connections and it also has Bluetooth support for media streaming from your phone (just like the Google Home).

It has a full-range speaker so you can hear Assistant’s voice responses from across the room, and far-field microphones to pick up your voice from a distance. Voice Match ensures that the Google Home Hub will only show personal details if your voice is recognized. The mute button on the back lets you manually turn off voice feedback. Lastly, the Home Hub also has an ambient light and color sensor as well. Google has developed "Ambient EQ" to automatically adjust the brightness and color of the display. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there’s no camera for you to make video calls.

The Google Home Hub measures 67. x 178.5 x 118 mm (depth x width x height) and weighs 480g. The power cable is 1.5m in length.

Google Home Hub Pricing and Availability

The Google Home Hub will be available in Chalk (white/gray), Charcoal (black), and Mint, and Pink starting October 22 for $149 in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Pre-orders start today, and if you purchase the device with a Google Chromecast Ultra, you'll save $25 (the offer ends November 20th.)

Refreshed Google Chromecast

Back in May, a refreshed Google Chromecast appeared on the FCC. With hardly any changes compared to the second generation Chromecast, it's hard to view this new model as a third-generation product. The main new "feature" here is improved WiFi support that should mean faster and more stable connections. Another added feature is the ability to act like a Chromecast Audio and do multi-room audio. Users have been asking for this for a long time.

The new Chromecast has a slightly different design and support for Bluetooth, and it also comes in a bundle with the Google Home Mini called the Google Smart TV Kit. The new Google Smart TV Kit bundle will be perfect to give to less tech-savvy friends and family, though I doubt the Bluetooth functionality in the revamped Chromecast will be useful for gaming via Project Stream.

This is a developing story. Additional details may be added over time.