Google has officially planted a stake in the land of voice activated, smart home virtual assistants. The tech giant on Tuesday introduced the highly anticipated Google Home device, a rival to Amazon's two-year-old smart-home hub Echo, during its Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View. But don't get too excited just yet -- the device won't launch until later this year at an undisclosed price. Formerly codenamed Chirp, Google Home serves as a voice-activated virtual agent capable of connecting to devices around the home (such as the Nest thermostat) and completing basic tasks like playing music or searching Google. The Google Home is essentially a small speaker, cylindrical in shape, equipped with always-on, far-field microphones that can pick up human voice from across the room.

Google outlined a new instant messaging app called Allo, a revamped Google Assistant and a video calling service dubbed Duo. Add it up and Google looks like it's revving up to make a social play again by taking on helpful bots, Apple's Facetime, Skype, Facebook's WhatsApp and Messenger as well as others. What's unclear is whether any of these efforts will do better than Google's Google, which didn't turn out to be the Facebook killer the search giant wanted. Google's bet is that "assistive," "ambient" and "conversational" experiences with its artificial intelligence will put a unique spin on the latest social efforts. The hub of social today is messaging.

Google usually picks desserts including Marshmallow and Gingerbread. "Please don't call it Namey McNameface," says Burke.

Google Home will take on Amazon Echo when the voice-activated device launches later this year. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Google officially entered the voice-activated digital assistant race Wednesday with Google Home. The small device will compete directly with Amazon's popular Echo and should be available to consumers later this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced at the search company's annual developers conference. The move had been anticipated, as Google looks to put its mark on a coming age of artificial intelligence in which machines learn to interpret and answer human queries by leveraging the speed and scope of cloud competing. Project lead Mario Querioz held the device in his palm, revealing a design that was shorter and wider than Amazon's cylindrical Echo, which is powered by Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa.

A sneak peak of what the future holds for Android, Google's artificial intelligence pursuits, and virutal reality. Google announces messaging app Allo at I/O developer conference in Mountain View, Calif. Google debuted its new messaging app to rival Facebook Messenger at I/O, its annual software developers conference. The messaging app has a twist: It's not just for chatting with friends and family. You can ask Google questions the way you would a digital assistant such as Siri.

Google announced on stage at its annual developer conference a smart home device called Google Home that will directly compete with the Amazon Echo speaker, the current darling of the budding tech category. The device, which looks similar to Google's OnHub Wi-Fi router and works alongside its new Google Assistant software (similar to Alexa's virtual assistant), will serve as master of ceremonies to your smart home. Like the Echo, Google Home is a speaker that will answer questions and complete tasks, like dim the lights and play music. But the company teases this device might even be smarter, thanks to its ability to change colors and keep the conversation going via a learning algorithm. Google Home, developed by its in-house Chromecast team, wants to be an entire control center for the house and supports Google Cast, which integrates with other speakers you might have in your house.

Google has revealed a new smart AI assistant and will build it into everything from a new smart listening speaker to a new messaging app. The firm is aiming squarely at Amazon's Echo with the Home speaker, and WhatsApp and Snapchat with the Allo app. Sundar Pichai took to the stage at a giant outdoor amphitheatre holding 7,000 next to Google's Silicon Valley HQ to unveil the Google Assistant and Google Home speaker, alongside a new version of Android and a virtual reality headsets for mobile phones. Mario Queiroz showed off the new Google speaker, called Google Home, that will be released later this year. The tech giant is reportedly working on an update to its current entry-level Cardboard, and is expected to release a headset this year.

Google kicked off its big I/O developer conference on Wednesday by unveiling a new voice-powered digital assistant along with plans to use that assistant to power a hardware device similar to Amazon's Echo. While the tool and hardware device look promising, some watching the event couldn't help but question why the assistant lacks some memorable name. And Google has... Google Assistant and Google Home? But there's an argument that not having a proper name may be a strength, not a weakness, of Google's new products for two key reasons. Incredibly odd how Google refuses to name its AI system.

Google confirmed that it will have an Amazon Echo competitor, called Google Home. Announced during the keynote of Google I/O 2016, Home will serve as a hardware avatar of sorts for its new Google Assistant conversational language search tool. Google Home will be available later this year, executives said, for an undisclosed price. The company showed off the small, cylindrical device in white, but it will feature bases in custom colors. Google Home being held by Mario Queiroz, vice president of product management and a member of the Chromecast team.

Amazon has gone to great lengths in the past year or so to expand its Alexa voice assistant beyond the Echo connected speaker. On Tuesday, one of its other devices that taps the cloud-based Alexa--the Fire TV media streamer--got a whole lot better on Tuesday in an announcement that demonstrates how far behind Google's recently announced Google Home device already is. While the new features are not immediately available, Amazon will roll these out via software updates over the next few weeks. Among the key new features are Fire TV app-launching capabilities and the option to ask Alexa to play content from Amazon Video and any add-on subscription content, as well as the capability to find movie showtimes at nearby theaters, read Kindle ebooks, and local business search. The update is the most comprehensive for Alexa on Fire TV to date.