The Google Home Max is discontinued, perhaps hinting at a replacement

Table of Content

• Google Discontinues Home Max Smart Speaker
• Google and Meta fight off the Congress revenue sharing bill
• The redesigned Material You home screen widgets of YouTube make their way to Android
• Is the Google hub worth it?
• Can the Google Home Max be used as a soundbar?
• The company will still support the smart speaker, though
• Google Has Officially Discontinued Home Max Smart Speaker

But the Google Home Max self-adjusts in order to make sure the sound stays consistent. This is good if you don’t feel like going through the trouble of EQing your music yourself, but not so good if you do because you won’t have that level of control. All you get is the basic bass and treble sliders in the Google home app. I did have some issues with the speaker hearing me when I spoke to it while music was playing, but I’ll get into that later. If you have a Google Chromecast, getting anything to play on your TV is seamless. Even pausing and playing the content is pretty quick and reliable just by telling the speaker to pause or resume playback.

One way it decided to make that happen was by adding their own algorithms that allow the speaker to self-adjust its EQ depending on where you place it using six internal microphones. As far as design is concerned, the Google Home Max looks great wherever you decide to put it. Taking a step back from the details in build materials, one of my favorite things about the speaker is its simple and minimal design. Besides the switch on the back , the Google Home Max is just one block of plastic. There aren’t any knobs or buttons to take away from the smooth design which makes sense since most of the functionality can be controlled with your voice.

Google Discontinues Home Max Smart Speaker

Last summer, Google officially discontinued the original Google Home, while the first-generation Home Mini is no longer available. And now, the last remaining device in the Google Home line-up has been officially scrapped. Last month, Google confirmed that the writing was on the wall for their Google Home Max speaker. Google’s larger-than-life Home Max is being retired, the company confirmed on Monday. After three years on the market — its anniversary was December 11 — Google said the last remaining units in its store have been sold, with no plans to manufacture new stock.

The rubber bass pad also keeps the rumbling of the speaker from disturbing anything around it. The Google Home Max has an acoustically transparent fabric that won’t get in the way of your music. If you regretted missing out on the Home Max, now is the chance to grab one .

Google and Meta fight off the Congress revenue sharing bill

It also included a switch to disable the microphones, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm input jack. Like other Google Home speakers, it featured a mesh shell with a distinct Google design. Behind the fabric are four lights that only show up when you’re adjusting something on the speaker. They’ll turn off a second after you change the volume or after it’s done listening to what you said. Around back you’ll get the power supply input, a 3.5mm input, and a physical mute switch. The mute switch doesn’t stop music playback, it just turns off the microphone so it isn’t always listening for the hotword.

I admit, I’m already in the group of people that use a Google Home, but that’s mainly for setting alarms, timers, and asking it questions while I cook. With the Google Home Max I still do all of those things, but all while listening to music or podcasts. That said, if you can get one for cheap somewhere it’s worth considering. Put aside the price and size, the Google Home Max is still more than a decent smart speaker. It is expectedly quite loud and supports stereo mode if you have two units (that’s nearly $800! at launch). Software-enabled features such as Smart Sound, which adjusts the equalizer to the current environment, make for high-quality sound in all surroundings.

The redesigned Material You home screen widgets of YouTube make their way to Android

Your opinion in this article is totally off and has a obvious narrow minded, uninformed point of view. Home is not useless as it has MUCH BETTER SOUND than minis or the Hub are capable of providing. They also respond to touch/volume control way better than the Next Minis. I can say this with confidence as we have 2 Google Homes, 3 Hub Displays and 3 minis in our home so I can say this with 100% confidence.

There is just one touch sensitive area on the side of the speaker that’s responsible for volume control or pausing/playing music, but that’s it. And because you can orient the speaker vertically or horizontally that touch-sensitive bit can either be on top or on the right side. One helpful feature is that a voice will tell you when you’ve accidentally turned the speaker turned upside-down if you’re moving it.

I have two of these in my dining room and they sound wonderful as a stereo pair. Especially with the max in the living room and a hub and mini in the kitchen. Heck, there are even all sorts of ways to get the full-blown Google Assistant experience without needing an old product staying on the shelves. Check — Sony, JBL, Bose, and even Google itself offer Bluetooth headphones that work seamlessly with Assistant and require no button tapping or fiddling. You betcha, and you'll find companies like Sonos with it's Sonos Beam and Sonos Move ready to give you a better-sounding Assistant than Google's old fabric and plastic models could ever offer. The Google Home speakers light up to show when they’re listening, but sometimes they might be triggered on accidentally by something that sounds similar to the hotword.

However, the great size came with great sound quality, which was also one of its main selling points. Other specifications for the model were the 3.5 mm AUX jack and the USB-C port. I've been working at PCMag since November 2016, covering all areas of technology and video game news. Before that I spent nearly 15 years working at Geek.com as a writer and editor. I also spent the first six years after leaving university as a professional game designer working with Disney, Games Workshop, 20th Century Fox, and Vivendi. In addition, the Home Max hasGoogle Assistant built right in, with a six-mic array meant to help with voice recognition.

It will continue providing support to existing devices though, at least for the foreseeable future. Released in 2017 for $399, the Google Home Max was on the higher end of the audio spectrum by Google standards. It weighed in at nearly 12 pounds and featured stereo speakers , dwarfing Google’s other smart speakers at the time.

There are some privacy issues that you should be aware of before you put this thing in your bedroom. For one, some Google Home recordings in the past were leaked thanks to contractors that had access to the recordings. Basically, when the Google Home can’t understand a certain command, Google keeps the audio clip to analyze it to try and fine tune how the speaker understands regular speech.