Google's new entry-level smart speaker will boast omnipresent voice (GOOGL)

Peter Newman

August 23, 2019 3:10 PM

The changes to the most affordable offering in Google's smart speaker lineup reflect the search giant's evolving approach to the smart home ecosystem.

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Here are some of the new wrinkles reportedly coming to the Nest Mini.

Improved audio output.The smart speaker will offer better sound quality, per 9to5Google's sources, which follows Amazon's similar improvement with the third generation of its Echo Dot earlier this year. Offering devices with high-quality audio experiences is key, even at the entry level, since playing music is by far the most commonly used smart speaker feature, according to Business Insider Intelligence's Emerging Tech Survey (Enterprise only).
Built-in wall mount.This feature will let users easily install the smart speaker on the wall. A range of third-party wall-mounting kits for the current Google Home Mini are available, but including this functionality in the device itself can add value for users at minimal cost to the company.

The bigger picture: The incremental improvements to the Nest Mini reflect the push by leaders in the smart speaker space toward omnipresent voice AI and ambient computing.

The Nest Mini's enhanced features are geared toward making consumers more likely to buy multiple smart speakers and place them around their homes.Google already allows users to create speaker groups to play music on multiple devices simultaneously, so improving the audio quality of its lowest-cost device could allow users to buy multiple and have smart speakers throughout their homes.

And wall-mounting options provide greater flexibility in placing devices, so that users can put a device anywhere regardless of furniture placement which opens up large swaths of the home to smart speakers.

As smart speakers move into new parts of the home, users will have more opportunities to engage with voice assistants, and thus become even more deeply enmeshed in tech companies' ecosystems.Having more smart speakers in the home will make it easier for users to interact more frequently with voice assistants: Users will be able to issue a command without needing to stop and think about whether a speaker is nearby, as the speakers will be throughout the home and likely within earshot.

Google's chief rival Amazon is going even further in its pursuit of bringing the voice assistant into homes, integrating Alexa in devices like microwaves and wall clocks. For voice assistants to control the home as these tech companies desire, they'll need to be available everywhere within the home so users don't turn elsewhere.