Skip to main content

Google may combine Home and Wi-Fi hub into a single product

google home version 23 speaker 1142x761
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Google has big plans for its connected home hardware, but its strategy has been two-pronged as of late, involving both Google Home and its Wi-Fi router. That may not be the case in the future, however, as it is purportedly looking to combine both of these into a single connected smart hub.

Such a combination would make for a Wi-Fi router with a smart, connected speaker that understands vocal commands. It would not only make it easier for Google to market its smart-home devices to customers with a singular product, but could help lead to the future it envisions, where customers have more than one such device in their home.

While we don’t have any hard announcement from Google detailing such a product, The Information (via Ars) cites a report that Google will make such a move to help it compete directly with Amazon’s burgeoning Alexa home hardware like the Echo and Echo Dot.

Currently Google Home and Google Wi-Fi are priced at $130 each, so presumably, any combination of the two would cost a little more than either of them alone, but would be cheaper than the cost of buying both.

Although Google Home and Google Wi-Fi have proven to be popular products, despite increasing competition from other big name manufacturers, Google has had to contend with some adversity in recent months. With the launch of the Beauty and the Beast movie, a suspected ad appeared during one user’s daily update from their Google Home. While Google denied it, the user base was not happy with the idea.

Google will, however, need to find some way to monetize vocal assistants in the coming years if more and more people do their searching through platforms like Google Home, rather than through the traditional Google search engine.

Editors' Recommendations

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
Google’s Nest Wifi Pro leaks weeks ahead of Pixel event
Google Nest Wifi sits on a black stand.

The Google Nest Wifi Pro is expected to arrive soon, and a recent leak suggests that the price has gone up compared to earlier models.

The info comes from B&H Photo, which has dropped some details of the product ahead of Google's Pixel event, scheduled for October 6. A search for "Google Nest Wifi Pro 6E" returned several results. Those B&H listings have now been removed, but we managed to capture screenshots before they disappeared. The price is shown as $199, $30 more than the 2019 Nest Wifi's retail price of $169 and $80 more than the current $119 sale price.

Read more
This new gaming monitor has a built-in Wi-Fi antenna
Phantom gaming monitor PG34WQ15R2B and PG27FF1A models.

The Taiwanese brand ASRock is getting more into the gaming market, now introducing its first gaming monitors, one with a never-before-seen integrated Wi-Fi antenna feature on such a product.

The Phantom gaming monitors include the PG34WQ15R2B and PG27FF1A models, but the first is the one with the integrated antenna.

Read more
Wi-Fi 7 officially hits 5Gbps, five times the speed of your current router
A Wi-Fi router with an ethernet cable plugged in.

Intel and Broadcom have collaborated on a Wi-Fi 7 demo ahead of its prospective 2023 certification, according to PC Gamer.

The two companies showcased the upcoming connectivity standards, successfully demonstrating 5Gbps speeds going between an Intel laptop and a Broadcom access point. The speeds are five times faster than Wi-Fi 6 and 2.5 times faster than Wi-Fi 6E. They also have the potential to get even faster as Wi-Fi 7 develops as an ecosystem, the publication added.

Read more