- Technology
- Americas
The Google Home Speaker sounds good and looks great — but it’s finicky
- David Pierce
- June 24, 2026 at 1:00 PM
- 5 views
Right out of the box, the new Google Home Speaker passed a couple of important tests. Even with the volume at 100 percent and music blaring out of the speaker, it quickly ducked the audio and listened every time I said "Hey, Google." In fact, in two days of testing, the speaker's three microphones haven't missed a single wake word - except for the time I stage-whispered to it from the other room while trying to avoid waking up the baby, but I'm not sure that's a fair test. I set up the speaker in the bathroom and chatted with it from the shower; Siri hardly ever hears me over the running water, but Google did pretty well.
These are the sort …
Originally published at The Verge