I have had a Google Home, Home Mini and the original Home Hub for years and thought I'd leave some feedback on items that even had me, an ardent Google user, considering altneratives or none at all:
1) Google Home Personalization instructions: One day my Home mini wouldn't add reminders. I had to agree to "personalization". Phone creates a notification and thought I'd be fine. Not in the slightest because neither it nor online instructions explains where it actually is, which is buried in one of the four popup options one has to turn on personalization. Both should be updated along with an explanation of the additional optional items, e.g. personal voice recognition.
2) Different Devices, Different Results. I'll add an alarm for 12:30AM which the Home Hub responds, for some reason, even though the Home speaker is clearly closer than the Hub. I'll speak to correct it but the Home speaker picks up and tells me that there is no alarm set to correct. I have to leave the room to go into the room where the Home Hub is located, change the alarm that is on that specific device.
Speaking of which, there should be an easier way to have an 'all or nothing' option. My alarms are central. I'm in an apartment and would benefit from having an alarm that goes off or on for all my devices or, if I specifically identify a device, should use only that device. Most of the time it's an alarm that I want to hear in whatever room I'll be in and don't know. If it's an alarm to wake me, then I'd prefer just one device and would think I could say "set an alarm in Bedroom" or some specific location. Maybe this is a feature but it's confusing because the system does a very poor job of figuring out how to answer.
3) Inconsistent Response from Nearest Device. I'm in my office. I have a Google Home speaker (original) about 4 feet to the right front of my desk. I'll look straight ahead, issue a command, and the Home Hub in my kitchen (in a door to my left about 10+ feet away) will respond. The Home Hub seems to be far more responsive than any other device. I can be in a bedroom and the Home Hub being 20 feet away or more, through a door, and that will respond often as opposed to the Home Mini in the bedroom. Occasionally I'll get those popups about which device should respond. There should be a way for the user to prompt these easily when wrong or a training program that can allow the user to answer those for the next X commands issued to train the system. It's infuriating when one can be in bed, speak to the Home Mini and a device 20+ feet away, out a door and down a hall will be by far the most responsive.
I've got 4 devices in my apartment and had room for 5, but the fifth I use an alternative which works very well for the items I throw at it. These are some of the pain points for me.
