Google Home to rival Amazon Echo, launching at Google I/O

Google has been heavily tipped to announce its own version of Amazon Echo at the Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco today. Now it has a name.

Google Home will be a voice controlled, connected device that is said to answer “simple questions” and carry out “basic tasks”.

Its shape and size has not yet been revealed, nor whether it will also be a Bluetooth speaker like the Echo, but we will find out more at the conference it is said.

The virtual agent market is in its early days but Amazon has sold more than three million Echo units since its launch more than a year ago – even more impressive considering it’s never made it over to the UK or mainland Europe.

READ: Amazon Echo vs Amazon Tap vs Echo Dot: What’s the difference?

It’s not known whether Google plans to release Home outside of the States, in order to beat Amazon to the punch over here, for instance, but it is claimed that the device will hit US stores in the fall.

The Google I/O opening keynote starts at 10am PST, so 6pm BST. You’ll be able to see the Google Home and other significant announcements on the livestream here.