Google Home speakers want to talk to children… with Disney’s help

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Amazon’s Echo smart speakers – and their Alexa voice assistant – are going to be getting some new skills designed for children. Now Google is following suit with its own Google Home devices.

The news was announced last week at Google’s press launch for its new speakers — the Google Home Mini and Google Home Max — and its Pixel 2 smartphones. The company’s plans revolve around its Google Assistant helper, which is Google’s equivalent of Alexa.

In case you’re new to the devices, you can talk to Google Home speakers to play your streaming music, do internet searches, control other devices around the house, check your schedule, get news and so on. Now some of those features will be designed for children.

“We think Google Home has lots of potential to help kids and families. We want to be thoughtful about what it would take to deliver a great kid experience,” said Google’s Rishi Chandra at the event.

“We are introducing over 50 new experiences with the Google Assistant to help kids learn something new, explore new interests, story time…”

One of its partners in this is Disney, which will be creating “exclusive experiences” for Google Home speakers based on characters and brands like Mickey Mouse, Lightning McQueen and Star Wars. Film studio Warner Brothers and Sports Illustrated Kids are also on board.

(Amazon had SpongeBob SquarePants and Sesame Street for its announcement, showing that big children’s brands are keen to figure out what they can do with these smart speakers…)

The first Google Home children’s experiences are launching this month. I’ll be interested to see how they work: this technology could be good for stuff that’s somewhere between radio and interactive apps, or at least radio that your children can talk back to and control with their voice.

It’s also important to note that this technology is controversial too: campaigning groups have criticised the idea of smart speakers targeting children on privacy grounds, as well as the concern that these devices could be seen as ‘AI babysitters’ standing in for parents.