Google Home wants to be your assistant, heating up the rivalry with Amazon Echo and soon, Apple

SAN FRANCISCO — When Christine Ha's techie husband ordered the Amazon Echo, she says she rolled her eyes skeptically, expecting another device to begin collecting dust in a forgotten corner of their Houston home. Then they plugged in the Echo on the counter ledge between their kitchen and living room and Alexa spoke to Ha.

"Life changer," Ha says.

Ha, the vision-impaired contestant who won season three of the amateur cooking show MasterChef on FOX, routinely asks Alexa, the Echo's digital voice assistant, for an assist with everyday tasks.

No screens to touch or buttons to push, Alexa can play jazz riffs or convert one U.S. dollar into Japanese yen. When Ha's making homemade ice cream, she can set a two-minute timer for the eggs she's whisking while monitoring the cream and milk heating on the stove. Ha's Nest thermostat is now voice controlled by Alexa, too, as are the lights, even the coffee maker.

It's the kind of cozy relationship that Amazon's rivals — notably Google and its Google Home device and maybe soon Apple — dearly want to have with consumers, too. This week Google Home will try coax more people to give its smart-talking device a whirl by announcing new features at Google's annual I/O conference for software developers in Silicon Valley.

More and more people are getting these devices to have a digital homebody at their beck and call who can fetch the news, read them an audio book, order diapers or dinner or tell them who's the prime minister of Lesotho. This year, 35.6 million Americans will use a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month, according to research firm eMarketer. And that's heating up the rivalry among the tech giants competing to get inside your home.

The front runner is the Amazon Echo, which is expected to command 70% of the U.S. market this year. Amazon is pushing its advantage, last week introducing the latest model, the Echo Show, which has a seven-inch touch screen and a video camera that let you place video or voice calls over a Wi-Fi connection.

Gaining ground is Google Home, the Amazon Echo rival introduced in October that is powered by Google Assistant. It's expected to announce new features this week at Google I/O. Google Home, on track to grab about 24% of the market this year, trails Echo as a distant second.

Samsung's Harman Kardon unit last week introduced a smart speaker powered by Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant called the Invoke. Like the others, it can check traffic, set reminders and list the members of Wu Tang Clan. It can also make Skype calls. And Microsoft is reportedly working on a new HomeHub feature for Windows 10 that would offer shared access to calendars and apps and would control smart home devices.

Even Mark Zuckerberg is playing around with the technology. As his personal project for 2016, the Facebook CEO built his own digital assistant, so much like Tony Stark's in Iron Man that he called it Jarvis. Among the tricks Jarvis can do: Recognize faces at Zuckerberg's front door and buzz in guests.

The spark that could really set fire to consumer demand: Apple may unveil its first device next month at its annual conference for software developers, WWDC. Apple employees have been testing a device at home for several months, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.

Tove Stakkestad, a 43-year-old freelance writer and blogger from Jupiter, Fla., says the Amazon Echo she received as a Christmas gift from her in-laws is a huge hit in her house. It helps the kids with their homework ("if it means that I don’t have to fully comprehend Common Core math, then I am all for it," she jokes) and helps her update shopping lists when she's cooking ("it feels like an extra set of hands for an already multi-tasking mom"). Yet hers is a devoted Apple family and, should Apple come out with its own version, it will be hard to resist.

"I can confidently say 'yes' on behalf of my gadget-loving husband," Stakkestad said. "He loves Apple products, so an Apple equivalent will be too tempting not to check out."

For years now technology companies have been following consumers as they shift their attention and spending to smartphones and Internet-connected devices, investing big in digital helpers such as Google Assistant, Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana. But when it debuted in late 2014, the Amazon Echo was an entirely new way to get hands-free technology into people's homes.

The Echo was marketed as a speaker but people quickly figured out what it was really good for, says Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. "You have an assistant who can help you get things done, answer questions and give you information," he says.

It took time for Google to punch back, but last May, Google CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled Google Assistant, hailing the digital assistant's debut as a seminal moment for the company.

A lot is riding on Google Assistant's shoulders. If consumers gravitate to a rival digital helper, say consult Siri on the iPhone or Alexa on Echo, Google could lose its place as the gateway to our digital lives. And that, in turn, could erode the near universal appeal and money-making prowess of Google's search engine and web services such as Gmail and Maps.

Analysts say it's early days for voice-activated devices with no clear winner yet. Many people still don't know what they are or what they can do.

Google Home has an early convert in James Hills, a 40-year-old men's lifestyle blogger from San Diego who says he bought the device before Christmas because he's a "Google guy."

"It's the ecosystem that I know and trust," says Hills, who asks Google Assistant everything from "who won the game" to "play me some Johnny Cash" whether he's sitting in his living room or driving in his car.

"It's much easier to just speak and have it done," he says, "and not have to worry about using my hands for anything."

Not everyone is such a fan. Google Home product forums have their share of complaints and snarky comments. More than a few people said they planned to return the device.

"It was sad to tell my wife that I wanted to return the Google Home she bought me for Christmas," one person wrote. "I have a Pixel and love it, my wife has a Pixel and loves hers. We have Nest and multiple Smart Thing devices and controllers in our home. We also have Samsung wireless speakers and TVs and Roku. I really didn't understand the purpose of the Home device. It doesn't do anything more than what me and my wife could already do with our Pixels and our home automation. "

But plenty of other people are buying and keeping them. About 10 million devices, mostly the Amazon Echo, were sold by the end of 2016, McQuivey estimates, and he expects some 15 million to 20 million more devices to be sold this year.

How quickly the public embraced what was essentially an entirely new kind of digital tool surprised Slice Intelligence analyst Ken Cassar. He's also surprised by who's buying these devices: mainstream America. "It’s not a tech early adopter group," Cassar said.

Chuck Jolley, 69, wasn't really sure why he should buy an Echo, but he did, figuring he might use it to listen to music in the kitchen. Now he has them all over his house and talks to them all the time.

"I had to rename them, there were so many," said Jolley, who runs a food industry marketing and public relations firm and is president of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo.

Tammilee Tillison, a 40-year-old travel and lifestyle blogger from Spokane, Wash., says she uses Google Home far more than she thought she would and now she's buying two more for the office and bedroom.

"A lot of my friends have purchased Google Homes and love them. We share ideas back and forth when we are talking on how we are using the system," Tillison said. "I really think over time that we are going to see these in most houses. We are going to such a hands-free life that this is just one more way to make life a little bit easier."

One of the biggest knocks on these devices? They're useful, but not yet useful enough. People expect a lot more from them, so sometimes the devices sit idle. In Forrester Research surveys, about a third of voice-activated device owners use them multiple times a day, a third a couple of times a week and a third once a week.

Cathy Herard, a 45-year-old blogger from Maine, says Alexa answers most questions and commands, no matter who's asking, especially her son who has autism and sometimes speaks very slowly or very fast.

"Alexa has gotten really good at understanding his requests. Bonus that his face lights up when it accurately responds to his commands," Herard said.

But Alexa's confused response — "I'm sorry, but I don't understand the question" — gets annoying, she says. "It doesn't happen regularly, but having to repeat yourself can get to be a bit of a pain."

By and large, people tend to believe these voice-activated devices are only getting smarter. Maybe too smart.

Lee Ann Moyer, a 37-year-old marketing professional from Portland, Ore., who bought the Amazon Echo about a year and a half ago, says she listens to music on it nearly every day, and her family has dance contests with it, turning their family room into a disco.

For all the fun and games, she's often reminded that the Echo is, well, there. Moyer and others interviewed by USA TODAY say they are willing to set aside concerns about privacy in exchange for a hands-free lifestyle at home.

But, she says, it's creepy when the Echo overhears her family and randomly responds.

"My husband was once whispering all his thoughts about the election to me, and I said, 'Why are you whispering?' He answered, 'Echo is listening.'"

Follow USA TODAY senior technology writer Jessica Guynn @jguynn

What do you love or hate most about the Amazon Echo or the Google Home? Are you holding out for Apple's version? Let us know in the comments.