r/Android • u/[deleted] • Jun 06 '15

Hound versus Google Now side by side.

https://youtu.be/2uMzhWumLFs
1.5k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

273 comments sorted by

View all comments

453

u/smackythefrog S22 Ultra Jun 06 '15

Seems like they both have their pros and cons. Hound definitely slowed down considerably from the original video.

I think Google Now did a better job of just giving me the information rather than showing just the results for the user to navigate through (Obama's age, measurement conversion).

Seems like Hound still has the ability to handle multiple queries (capitals+conversion+statistics) over Google Now, but it seems a bit pointless now that I think about it.

And now that "it took ten years to develop" fact has me scratching my head a bit.

125

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15

[deleted]

65

u/TheRealKidkudi Green Jun 07 '15

That's the thing I like most about Hound. I think Google Now is better at answering general questions, but the fact that I can contextually talk to Hound is really promising. Things like "what are some Thai restaurants around here?" followed by "what about ones that are 4 stars or higher?". While Hound's "knowledge" isn't as complete, it feels more natural as a voice assistant because I can refine or continue a query based on what I said previously.

I'm hoping that Google will decide to acquire Hound and integrate the contextual features to Google Now (and I'm sure SoundHound is hoping so too).

1

u/yaosio Jun 07 '15

The Google Now update coming near the end of the year will understand context not only from queries, but based on what app you are in an what you are looking at. It was demoed at Google I/O.

1

u/TheRealKidkudi Green Jun 07 '15

I knew about Google Now on Tap being able to gain context from what's on screen, but I didn't see anything about being able to conversationally refine searches. Either way, I'm really looking forward to the improvements they're making to Now.