The home speakers hit the Indian market on April 10 and as that of echo devices hit the market much before on October, 2017. It's been 6 months since Google home has become part of many families in India, even before its launch I was using home mini but was not able to use all its features and was eagerly waiting for an official release. Now, for quite a time I have been acquainted with both Alexa as well as Google home, and it's a perfect time to check where the two kindred virtual spirits lie with respect to the Indian market.
Alexa already had a head start of 4 months and on top of that was well configured for the Indian market right from the beginning. On the other hand, when home released the only thing that changed was that I was able to choose my default music provided from 2 more options - saavn and gaana, rest it was all the same as before. Though Google enthusiasts (me being one too) were quite confident about home getting all the features like US or UK pretty soon, but I must say even after six months the disappointment is not gone completely. Earlier, Alexa was pretty much able to call a cab, order food, crack some Indian jokes, catch up some Indian phrases specially in case of Hindi songs, but all that Google was able to do was play songs. Google was much behind Alexa in terms of the Indian sector.
But the same lag still persists even after six months is a bit difficult to admit. Google did update itself on quite a number of things like now it can book a cab. People feel comfortable with people of same accent between them which Alexa provides, Google's American accent makes it feel like an outsider. This is were Alexa gets a boost. Moreover, Google also does not provide support of Indian news channels which makes it a big NO for staying up-to-date with news from Indian perspective. Recently, I checked and Google is able to accept my request to book an Uber but failed to execute it as she claimed that "service is not available to the destination" whereas it is available from their app, I don't want to get into this contradiction but it's good to see this feature finally getting into Google. Another thing that Google got better at is catching Indian phrases of Hindi, Bengali, and regional songs but it still got to be better. It still has a lot of things to work on compared to Alexa mainly the problem of accent.
Google is working on to update it to match the needs of Indian market but it better be fast because the head start of Alexa is increasing day-by-day. Seeing the progress and updates of Google in US as well as other countries, we can hope for the best to come soon to India.
Google home devices
Alexa already had a head start of 4 months and on top of that was well configured for the Indian market right from the beginning. On the other hand, when home released the only thing that changed was that I was able to choose my default music provided from 2 more options - saavn and gaana, rest it was all the same as before. Though Google enthusiasts (me being one too) were quite confident about home getting all the features like US or UK pretty soon, but I must say even after six months the disappointment is not gone completely. Earlier, Alexa was pretty much able to call a cab, order food, crack some Indian jokes, catch up some Indian phrases specially in case of Hindi songs, but all that Google was able to do was play songs. Google was much behind Alexa in terms of the Indian sector.
Amazon echo devices
But the same lag still persists even after six months is a bit difficult to admit. Google did update itself on quite a number of things like now it can book a cab. People feel comfortable with people of same accent between them which Alexa provides, Google's American accent makes it feel like an outsider. This is were Alexa gets a boost. Moreover, Google also does not provide support of Indian news channels which makes it a big NO for staying up-to-date with news from Indian perspective. Recently, I checked and Google is able to accept my request to book an Uber but failed to execute it as she claimed that "service is not available to the destination" whereas it is available from their app, I don't want to get into this contradiction but it's good to see this feature finally getting into Google. Another thing that Google got better at is catching Indian phrases of Hindi, Bengali, and regional songs but it still got to be better. It still has a lot of things to work on compared to Alexa mainly the problem of accent.
Google is working on to update it to match the needs of Indian market but it better be fast because the head start of Alexa is increasing day-by-day. Seeing the progress and updates of Google in US as well as other countries, we can hope for the best to come soon to India.
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