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Right, im going google home!


Fon

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I've got a Home Mini and an Alexa. Both fairly similar with what they can do. 

Got Philips Hue Hub linked, with 3 wifi bulbs. Works well on both. :)

Mine are a bit last year, so to say. The Home Hub is out, with a touch screen display.

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Got a mini in the living room that does nothing much than act as a radio for most of the time. Also linked my Spotify to it and it works very well TBH.
Don't use it for other entertainment but if you've got a streaming account, I'd be surprised if you can't cast to the Chromecasts. Equally though, not sure if the CC will switch their TV over to the HDMI channel its connected to. Kinda defeats the auto nature of the ecosystem if you've got to hunt for the remote for example.

Bought some Energenie kit on an Amazon flash deal a while back. Looked at wifi kit but took the cheapest option when it presented itself. Got 3x 'smart' plugs and a hub. This was followed by replacement light switches. Energenie kit is radio controlled, not wifi BTW. Not sure that makes much of a real-world difference as it is all connected up anyway and was simple to set up. Got some cheapo wifi bulbs too, but the novelty of changing the colour soon wore off and having 2 different brands of connected kit made switching the lights on and off a poor experience. It didn't work well as the bulbs and switch don't report their status so you could switch the bulbs off and then switch the lights off but when asking for the lights to switch on, they wouldn't because the bulbs are already 'off'. Binned the bulbs and kept the switch.

Tado central heating also controlled by voice as well as the Google Home app on the phone. "Hey Google, I'm cold" for instance reacts with "OK setting the Living Room temperature to 23 degrees" via a routine.

https://assistant.google.com/explore?hl=en_uk is where to start if you haven't already been there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i have the home mini but it has been relegated to the litleones room as a play thing put alexa in kitchen lounge and bedroom have some sonoff switches and a hue bridge with 2 bulbs all work great just found the google home mini to be lacking with its AI and skills 

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Got Google home and mini in a few rooms but TBH they act as radios and music streamers most of the time. I do like the broadcast facility that notifies all the devices that dinners ready when I'm 5 minutes from home on a Friday evening with the takeaway. 

I tried to set up the call to and call from Android devices but gave up the will to live when setting up. 

The control of lights and heating seems good if I wasn't too tight to pay for the hubs

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