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Best for Basics
Google Nest Mini (2nd Gen)
Best Bang for Your Buck
Google Nest Audio
Best for Sound
Sonos One (Gen 2)
Best Soundbar
Sonos Arc Soundbar
There are several voice assistants locked in a tug-of-war over who controls the smart speakers in your home: Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, and Apple’s Siri. We prefer Google. Its Assistant answers questions more accurately, has a simpler setup process, and connects to a growing number of smart home devices. All the devices below have built-in Google Assistant, so you can ask it anything you’d search for on Google, or ask it to control smart home products like robot vacuums, smart plugs, lights, and TVs.
Be sure to check out our handy guide on how to maintain your privacy as much as possible while still enjoying the luxuries of smart assistants. We also have many other buying guides, including the Best Smart Displays, Best Smart Speakers, and Best Alexa Speakers.
Updated May 2024: We’ve updated this guide with details about Google’s AI script editor for Google Home, and we’ve added notes about using Google with Sonos.
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Photograph: Google
Best for Basics
Google Nest Mini (2nd Gen)
The 2nd-gen Nest Mini (7/10, WIRED Review) is the successor to the original Google Home Mini, though you’ll be hard-pressed to find any visual changes. You do get improved audio quality, specifically stronger bass, and better voice recognition, plus the device is wall-mountable so you can save some space on the credenza. The volume controls light up as you approach the Mini and, perhaps best of all, the speaker is made with sustainable materials: The fabric around the top is 100 percent recycled plastic bottles, and the external enclosure is made with around 35 percent post-consumer recycled plastic.
If you’re looking for the most affordable way to smarten up your home, the Nest Mini is where you should start. But if you’re planning to stream music a lot, this isn’t the option we recommend, because the Nest Mini doesn’t get too loud. It’s a little bigger than a hockey puck.
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Photograph: Google
Best Bang for Your Buck
Google Nest Audio
The Nest Audio is impressive for its price (8/10, WIRED Recommends). This midsize speaker replaces the Google Home from 2016, and it improves on it with louder sound and deeper bass. It still won’t take up too much room, and its discreet design allows it to blend into your home. The long power cable helps, making it easy to place anywhere. Best of all, if you pair two of these together, WIRED reviewer Parker Hall says you get some of the best stereo sound for the money. There’s a physical switch to turn off the mic.
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Photograph: Sonos
Best for Sound
Sonos One (Gen 2)
The second-generation Sonos One is a great option for people who want excellent audio quality but don’t want to spend several hundred dollars on speakers. You get capacitive touch controls on the top, including a mute switch for when you want to ensure privacy. It also always makes a pleasant tone when Google Assistant is activated, so you know when it’s listening. You can pair another Sonos One to get multiroom stereo sound, and if you have other Sonos speakers in your home, like the company’s soundbars, it can seamlessly connect to them. The Sonos Move ($450) (8/10, WIRED recommends) is a nice upgrade from Sonos (and it’s portable!), but it’s twice the price.
Sonos also has the Era 100 ($249) (9/10, WIRED Recommends), but these don’t support Google Assistant for voice control. You can still control the Era models with a using any of the Google speakers in this guide, but you can’t actually speak to the Eras speakers themselves. Check out our Best Sonos Speakers guide for more.
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Photograph: Sonos
Best Soundbar
Sonos Arc Soundbar
The Sonos Era 100 sounds great, but if it’s in your budget, spring for the company’s Arc Soundbar (9/10, WIRED Recommends) and you’ll really step up your sound quality a notch. It has built-in voice support for Google Assistant (plus Alexa and Siri). The four far-field microphones can pick up a voice over the TV, so you can tell it to pause or lower the volume. It’s not the only soundbar with voice-assistant capabilities, but the Arc sounds downright excellent with Dolby Atmos support, and it will receive updates for probably the next decade. The only downside is the price.
The Sonos Beam ($449) (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a smaller option with great sound for half the price. Read our Best Soundbars guide for more recommendations.
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Photograph: Simon Hill
Best Smart Display
Google Nest Hub Max
Assistant-powered speakers are limited to sound, which is why smart displays have an advantage. You get similar audio quality plus a screen to see things like the weather forecast, rather than just hear it. Google’s 10-inch Nest Hub Max (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is big enough to use as a screen to watch shows or YouTube videos while washing the dishes (though Amazon Prime Video isn’t available). When not in use, the screen doubles as a digital photo frame, cycling images from Google Photos.
The Nest Hub Max doesn’t look too techie, has good audio quality, and comes with a camera, so you can make group video calls with Google’s video-chatting service, Meet. The camera can identify people in the household, so when you step in front of it, you’ll see a personalized calendar. It can also recognize your palm, so just raise it to pause music or videos without having to say anything. Best of all, there’s a physical switch on the back that turns off the mic and camera. If the 10-inch size is too big, the 7-inch Nest Hub (2nd Gen) (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is a nice option. It’s a little too small for our tastes, but the lack of a camera means it’s a more privacy-friendly machine for the more private areas of your home. It also has sleep-tracking functions if you use it on a bedside table.
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
A Smart Display and Tablet Combo
Google Pixel Tablet
The Google Pixel Tablet (7/10, WIRED Recommends) can turn into a smart display when it’s placed on the included speaker dock. In this hub mode, you can access all your smart home controls right from the lock screen—even view security camera feeds—and the microphones do a great job of picking up “Hey Google” commands from across the room. The speaker dock sounds surprisingly decent for its small size.
As a tablet, the 11-inch LCD screen is great for watching movies and shows, plus you can even cast content from your phone or laptop to it. Pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard and you can do some light work too. There have been a lot of great improvements in Android that make multitasking so much easier on larger screens, with more tablet-optimized apps as well. Best of all, the Pixel Tablet supports up to eight users, and each person in the household can set up the slate the way they want. Just choose your profile, which is protected by the fingerprint sensor.
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Photograph: Bose
A Portable Alternative
Bose Portable Home Speaker
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is for people who want a take-anywhere speaker that prioritizes sound quality. The 360-degree speakers toss sound in all directions, and there’s solid bass response. The built-in handle makes it easy to carry around, and the battery lasts more than 10 hours on a charge. It connects to your Wi-Fi network, which is how you can talk to Google Assistant, but if you leave the house with it, you can connect to it via Bluetooth through your phone to stream music. It’s one of the prettier portable speakers on our list.
The device’s controls sit at the top, and there’s a Mute switch for privacy. It has only an IPX4 rating, making it splashproof but not fully waterproof. That makes it fine to put in the bathroom if you want to jam out in the shower, but this isn’t the speaker to take to the beach. It’s also quite expensive.
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Photograph: Olly Curtis
AI-Powered Routines
Google has some major AI plans for its products. But there’s already some AI assistance you can get with its smart home products: the script editor, which uses AI to help you create custom smart home routines.
The script editor’s AI area, called “Help me script,” which you can find at Google Home for web, lets you to describe the automation you want—likely something a little complicated or combination effects, like seeing someone on your porch and turning on two actions at once—and then the generative AI will create a code for you. The Help Me script where you can write in what automations you want is on the right side of the screen, letting you type in and see results freely, but you’ll need to copy and paste that code over to the left side to validate and activate the code as an automation.
It’s still in a public preview, and you have to request to join, but I was able to join immediately after requesting. It’s easy to play around with the script and get immediate AI-generated code to create your routines. It’s a good tool to try if you’re a power user or have a complicated smart home setup, but it’s still in preview, so you might not see perfect results.
