How Google could fire up its smart home play

When it was unveiled at last year's I/O, Home felt like little more than Google's attempt to cash in on the Echo's success. And the intervening year hasn't done a lot to dispel that notion. The company announced a handful of additions to Home and Assistant at this year's event to try to pull even with Amazon's lead, but the whole Google Home offering still feels ambling and aimless. That Google thought it had a slam dunk with Assistant on the mobile side hasn't helped much, either. Since launching on the Pixel back in October, the voice helper still has a limited reach. Amazon, meanwhile, has made the jump onto handsets by companies like HTC and Huawei, while others, including Samsung, have opted to just build their own damned assistant in house.