7 Features Amazon Echo Can Offer But Google Home Can't

There are few things that the Echo can’t do like Google Home, for example, throwing videos and images to your TVs or contextual conversations. But Google Home still has to work hard to catch up with the Amazon Echo’s Alexa. Google has added many new features to its Home, so the gap is smaller, but still, below are 7 things that Google Home still can’t do like Amazon Echo.

Track packages

As you can use Alexa to order things online, it makes sense that it also allows you to track your orders from Amazon with the Amazon Echo also. You only need to say, “Alexa, where is my stuff?”. It will not provide you with many details, like where your package is atm or its status, but it will give you the estimated date the package arrives.

This feature is also available with Google Assistant on smartphones, it will be likely to be integrated into Google Home to track orders with practically most of the online e-commerce sites. But for now, the feature is still not available for Google Home.

Delivery notifications

In this aspect, Google Home still does support notifications for calls and reminders, it cannot tell you when the packages you ordered is being delivered. But you can have that feature with Alexa. And it can also do that with items that are not from Amazon. For example, you can even enable notifications for pizza delivery status of Domino.

Amazon Music and Prime Music

Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, and TuneIn were the initial official radio and music services supported by Google Home. In February, Google added iHeartRadio.

With Alexa speakers of Amazon, you can access the same music services, except for YouTube Music and Google Play Music. But, you will get the in-house streaming services of Amazon in return, Prime Music and Amazon Music.

Despite the fact that Google Home doesn’t support Amazon Music or Prime Music officially as they are competing against each other, you can still stream most of the audio to your Google Home by casting it from a mobile device like phones or tablets. Chromecast is not supported by the Amazon Music app so you cannot stream any audio from the app to your Google Home using iOS devices. However, you can still do that with devices running Android. First, you need to play music from the Amazon Music app, then pull down the notification shade and tap the Cast logo, after that, selecting your Google Home from the list to stream the audio you want through the speaker.

Voice remote

If you want to control the Amazon Echo without reaching its voice range, you only need to buy a $30 Alexa Voice Remote.

You can do the same thing with your Google Home but you have to buy another Google Home.

Third-party apps

Amazon allows developers to utilize Alexa’s power within applications, such as Ubi and Roger. There was one developer who created Echosim.io - a platform that allows developers to test skills without having to own the device. It provides many test Alexa for tests in their own browsers.

Besides streaming audio, these Alexa’s virtual versions work pretty much the same as the actual devices. That means you can get Alexa’s full effect without having to own one. For now, you can only fully test a Google Home device with Google Assistant on a phone running Android.

Making donations to charity

If you want to make donations, Amazon Echo can do that for you. Amazon has just given its Alexa the ability to make a donation to non-profit organizations. Alexa users can make donations from 5$ to 5,000$ to organizations like the American Heart Association, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and other charities.

Routines on a schedule

Both Amazon Echo and Google Home were updated to enable routines or in another word, the ability to process multiple actions from just one command. But Alexa’s routines are the only ones that can be activated on a schedule. It means that you can use it to play music or turn the lights on at any time you want, without telling it to do so. It may seem just a minor difference, it still matters.

With Alexa’s routines, you are able to set it to start playing the news at the same time turn on your lights. Or you can schedule your favorite bedtime songs to play at the same time with turning off the lights.