My previous post, “10 Alexa Skills for Shopping (and Selling),” focused on Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, and the burgeoning number of third-party apps and APIs — “Skills” — for that technology. Amazon’s smart-speaker device, Echo, uses Alexa.
Google, meanwhile, has developed its own voice assistant, Google Assistant, and its own device, Google Home. I will address Google Home and its shopping features in this post.
Configuring Google Home
Google Home currently supports shopping only for U.S.-based users, who can use voice to purchase products and services.
Google Home users must first complete an initial setup on the device’s mobile app before they can order products. This setup facilitates the following.
- Enable payments. Enter a credit card or debit card to link it to the Google Home account.
- Enter shipping address. Associate one or more shipping addresses with the user’s Google Home account. If more than one address is entered, one of them can be marked as the default address for ease of voice ordering.
- Grant access. Users with more than one Google Home device can configure the ones they will use for shopping by giving access to payment information.
- Multiple users. Often multiple users use a single Google Home device. The app can set up these users, and the device will recognize the voice…
