8 Essential Google Home devices you need

Wondering what you can do with your Google Home? Luckily, there's no shortage of smart home products that integrate with Google Assistant, giving you tons of options for building out the perfect smart home for your needs. See our top smart home products that work with Google Home.

8 Essential Google Home devices you need
Google Home Mini in Red

Welcome to the age of the smart home, where you can control all the technology in your home by voice command, from bedroom lighting to your thermostat. But before going all-in on smart home tech, you’ll need to choose an ecosystem that supports your efforts to build out an interconnected home.

Google Home rivals Amazon Alexa as one of the most compatible platforms for smart homes. That’s to say, you’ll have access to a wide range of Google Home devices if you opt for the Google ecosystem.

When you opt for Google Home, you’ll be able to connect to smart home products from brands like Nest, JBL, Philips, Logitech, Bose, and many others. All of which can simplify your life at home and help you achieve the smart home you’ve been dreaming of. Below we offer some of our favorite smart home gadgets and devices that work with Google Home.

Ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control Intelligent Thermostat

Gone are the days of fussing over your confusing thermostat, trying to change your home’s temperature, or set heat or AC schedules. When you connect the ecobee SmartThermostat to your Google Home, you’ll have total environmental control over your home from either the Google Home app or via voice control. The thermostat doesn’t just detect the temperature in your home, but it can also detect how many people are in a room and adjust its settings accordingly. You can also place the ecobee temperature sensors anywhere in your home so you can avoid cold or warm pockets in your house.


JBL Link Bar Android-Powered Soundbar

The JBL Link Soundbar comes integrated with Google Assistant. The built-in Google Assistant gives you voice control over the TV and voice search capabilities when you’re trying to find something to watch, so don’t stress keeping track of the TV remote. But the soundbar isn’t just useful for enhancing your TV and movie experience. It can also play music and podcasts when the TV is off, making it a great all-in-one sound system for your home.


Google Home Max Smart Sound Speaker

If you want to use your Google Home device as your in-home sound system, it’s worth upgrading from the standard Google Home to the Google Home Max Smart Sound. With an emphasis on aesthetics and audio quality, the speaker is constructed with two 4.5-inch woofers and two 0.7-inch tweeters that combine to bring rich audio that fills your home. With built-in Smart Sound technology, the speaker adapts to your space and optimizes the acoustics to your home. And with Google Assistant, it’s easy to access more than 35 million songs and podcasts on Spotify, Pandora, and other streaming platforms.


Nest Cam IQ Indoor Security Camera

Investing in an indoor camera is a great way to keep an eye on your home while you’re at work or on vacation. Whether you have kids at home, pets, or you just want to make sure your house is safe, the Nest Cam IQ Indoor Security Camera is a great option. Built with a 1080p camera at 30 frames per second, this high-powered camera keeps a detailed eye on the inside of your home. And with its 130-degree field of view, you can monitor entire entryways or rooms with a single camera. Nest cameras integrate with Google Assistant so you can give it voice commands to record, zoom in or out, or to pull up saved footage.


SimpliSafe Compact Home Security System

Investing in a home security system is no longer the daunting commitment it used to be. Nowadays, brands like SimpliSafe offer affordable systems that you can set up on your own, and pay for on a month-to-month basis instead of signing onto lofty three-year contracts. The SimpliSafe Compact Home Security System is a great option for those who want a basic security system at a good price. Monitor the system yourself from a mobile app or pay monthly for professional monitoring if you don’t want to take on the monitoring burden yourself. When you’re at home, SimpliSafe systems integrate nicely with a Google Home device so you can verbally control the security system.


Philips Hue Beyond Dimmable Smart Table Lamp

Smart light bulbs are more than a party trick. They’re also plain convenient. The Philips Hue Beyond Dimmable Smart Table Lamp looks as smart as it functions. The lamp gives you over 50 different shades of white to find the perfect fit for your bedroom, be it bright white or a softer white that isn’t as hard on the eyes before bed. With the Philips Hue app, you can program timers and schedules for your Hue lamp, and dim or brighten the light from your phone. And when connected to your Google Home, you can control the lamp with voice commands.


Nest Mini Smart Speaker

The Nest Mini Smart Speaker will surprise you with its big sound. The bass is twice as strong as previous versions of this speaker, and it shows with clearer and more natural sound. On the other end of the spectrum, the new Nest Mini Smart Speaker comes with a third microphone to hear you better. It also uses a machine-learning chip that remembers your most frequent commands for better accuracy with Google Assistant. It’s perfect for small homes or apartments where a larger device like the Google Home would be overkill.


Lenovo Smart Display 7 Google Assistant Hub

The Lenovo Smart Display 7 gives you a screen in conjunction with Google Assistant. The Google Home is a great hub, but we really like the addition of a screen so you can do things like check the weather, look at your schedule, see recipes, and a whole lot more. Along with the screen, it comes with a built-in 2MP camera that works great for capturing quick photos or video calling. And the TrueBlock Privacy Shutter hides the camera while you’re not using it.


These are just a few of the Google Home devices that work with Google Assistant that will take your smart home to the next level. Fortunately, the industry is taking off, with new products launching almost daily. There’s almost no limit to how you can use your Google Home. What does your dream smart home look like?

Matt Halpin is a contributor at Gadget Flow where he gets to nerd out on the latest tech, gadgets, and accessories. When he's not grinding away at his keyboard, he's likely camping somewhere with his dogs.
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