OK Google rules down under.

OK Google voice assistant speakers have exceeded 70% of Australian sales in Q2 2022. Alexa languishes at 25%, and Siri gets the scraps at a measly 5%. It is a three-horse race with two now ready for the knackery. These are now in more than 3 million Aussie homes.

OK Google is widely used for everything except shopping. Which is why Alexa is languishing – it is a thinly veiled front for online behemoth Amazon!

Some say Apple has given up on Dreary, sorry Siri. I suspect its boffins are beavering away and will soon claim they invented the smart speaker category. Its silver-tongued CEO will work out how to charge more to chat with Siri while offering less than Google.

Let’s address a few issues about the Australian Smart Home and OK Google use.

Security/Privacy

My very senior neighbours won’t have OK Google speakers in their home. But after showing them how to use it on their Android Smartphones, they talk more to Google than each other. A Google mini has snuck into the kitchen too if only to solve arguments over irrelevant facts.

OK Google (a.k.a. Google Assistant) is simply a voice-activated version of its search engine with a raft of smart home features included. If you use Android, you already have exposed your data to Google, and the sky did not fall. Google uses all the data from Android phones, watches, TVs, and searches to build your profile and send targeted advertisements. It does not sell your personally identifiable data – ever!

As an IT-savvy sexagenarian, I am more paranoid about privacy than most. Frankly, Google’s Privacy Dashboard gives you complete control over how your data is used. I have come to trust Google with that.

Fact: Google does not listen to your conversations to nefariously send you targeted adverts. You are to blame for oversharing on FakeBook (all social media and free social apps) and not enabling standard privacy controls.

OK Google is essentially device agnostic and ubiquitous

Phones, TVs, Cars, speakers, soundbars, headphones and more have OK Google functionality. I can’t remember the last time I used a remote control. ‘OK Google, turn on lounge TV to Channel 7’ or ‘OK Google, Find Mandalorian (or whatever)’.

My lights are now Googleised, and I simply say, ‘OK Google turn on lounge’ or “OK Google, turn the lounge lights to 50% warm white.” When I go to bed, it is ‘OK Google, turn everything off’, and 20+ devices on smart power switches are deactivated until I need them again.

Part of the reason for Google Assistants’ success is the huge number of apps that now support OK Google voice. All it takes is for a developer to include the voice Assistant API.

And well over 5000 devices integrate with it for a smart home experience.  Soon this list will increase as Google Assistant embraces Matter and Thread. This means different brand smart devices can talk with each other and have OK Google control.

What can you do with OK Google?

You can read the most common uses but let’s be clear that Google Home/Assistant/OK Google needs a decent Wi-Fi home network. It does not use much bandwidth, but it does pass the questions or commands to the Google cloud for action. Remember, it is simply a voice-enabled search that can deliver cat/fog/pony images in a flash.

The top uses are still to answer questions like the daily weather, sports reports, find a recipe, general knowledge, or play a radio station or Spotify track. Lately, its use is to find retailers and products near you ‘OK Google, find a pool cleaner near me’.

Duo calling, especially between family and friends, is free, and with a screen-enabled device, you can video call to catch up with family, see grandkids etc.

Increasingly, they are for smart home control – lights, power on/off, TV content search and selection and security camera integration. More use is now made of reminders and shopping lists.

Since 2020 most cars have Android Auto, so you can use Google Apps like Maps, Search, Calendar etc., in your car. Google’s voice find for maps and directions is outstanding, and its traffic information is more up-to-date than a satnav system with live traffic.

Now live-time, two-way translation is possible, opening the world.

There is still a hesitance to voice match – to allow Google to identify various voices in your home and customise answers. If you enable voice match, it opens your calendar, email, phone, and SMS to help you. ‘OK Google, what am I doing today, and do I need an umbrella?’

What is coming?

The continuous conversation is here but not enabled by default. You can converse with OK Google (and it is good that it is not like a person, as is Alexa and Siri), and it can read stories and news to you.

The ability to make appointments for local suppliers like hairdressers, doctors, dentists, taxis, uber, restaurants and more are also available. Still, it requires their booking systems to be Google Assistant aware. It can already check flight and train schedules.

It can already send SMS for you and put the SMS stream into context.

Google has been clear that its Assistant will not take over the home and become Terminator. It carefully implements new features based on user requests but stops short of applying AI to think for you.

How to implement OK Google

Google Nest Mini – the low-cost way to add OK Google (speaker review) is $79. It is straightforward to add OK Google if you are an Android smartphone user.

I recommend using Google Nest Hub Gen2 – knows when you are asleep (security/speaker review), and at $149, it is terrific as a bedside clock. There is a 10” Hub Max at $349, and you can stream YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, and Google Photos.

You can add other Google Nest devices like the video doorbell, security cameras, Smoke alarms, 4K and 1080p Chromecast TV dongles, and Wi-Fi. Although with Matter support, you can easily add Arlo, Swann, Uniden and thousands of other devices.

Read more Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa – the battle of the smart assistants (guide)