Skip to main content

Google is offering free donuts and Home Minis to people in select cities

Google Home Mini Review
Dan Baker/Digital Trends.com
Google recently announced its latest digital assistant, the Google Home Mini. The device was announced at Google’s Pixel event earlier this month and serves as a competitor to the Amazon Echo Dot. Of course, with Amazon having a bit of a head start in the smart speaker wars, Google will need a way to get people interested in the Home Mini and what better way than donuts?

Generally speaking, new tech and breakfast pastries don’t normally go hand-in-hand, but the small size of the Home Mini has inspired a unique marketing strategy in the form of the Google Home Mini Donut Shop.

Business Insider has reported that in order to market its upcoming smart speaker, the tech giant will be setting up donut shops at various locations across the country. Once you’ve entered the shop, you simply ring a bell, ask the Home Mini a question and then take your box. The box will either contain a Home Mini or two donuts. We’d imagine that the odds are stacked in favor of the donuts, but it’s still a fun marketing gimmick that highlights the small size of Home Mini.

In addition to the main attraction, there’s also the “Sprinkle Booth,” where customers can dance around in a shower of confetti. The last bit is kind of strange, but it also captures the somewhat fun brand that Google has managed to build for itself over the years.

In terms of the actual smart speaker itself, the Home Mini appears to function like most smart speakers and serves as a way for users to order groceries, find the answers to basic questions, and control various aspects of their homes simply via speaking. Our review found some of its functionality, like the voice recognition, to be particularly impressive. We also noted that certain areas, such as voice calling, lagged behind the competition, though.

The Google Home Mini Donut Shops are currently scheduled to appear in 11 cities across the country. The full list can be seen below:

  • Brooklyn: Oct. 20-22
  • Austin: Oct. 21-22
  • Oklahoma City: Oct. 28-29
  • Madison, Wis.: Nov. 2
  • Chicago: Nov. 4-5
  • Indianapolis: Nov. 4-5
  • St. Louis: Nov. 9
Eric Brackett
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Google Home adds support for garage door controls
Google Home icon on home screen.

Google Home gives you access to a wide variety of smart home devices, and garage doors have now joined the party. Support for smart garage controllers is rolling out to select users -- although it only appears to be available to folks previewing the new Google Home app and does not yet have an official release date.

Still, seeing the product category added to any version of Google Home is great news for smart home enthusiasts. Google Home is one of the most widely used smart home platforms on the market, and as smart garages continue to gain traction, it’s nice to see their inclusion in the app (even if they’re still not as popular as smart thermostats or video doorbells).

Read more
Your Google smart home devices just got a lot less talkative
A person standing in a living room while looking at a Google device.

Smart assistants are an indispensable part of any smart home, making it easy to give hands-free commands and control a variety of gadgets. Google is looking to further streamline the performance of its smart assistant, with the expansion of chime alerts to cut down on how talkative your Google Nest gadgets are when responding to instructions.

For example, after asking Google to turn on a fan, you’ll now be able to hear a quick chime to confirm the assistant has heard your instructions. Previously, confirmation would come in the form of a short sentence, such as “OK, turning on your fan.”

Read more
Google stops updating third-party smart displays
The Lenovo Smart Display on a table.

Google Assistant is one of the most popular smart home assistants of 2023, but it looks like big changes are in store for the remainder of the year. According to an updated support page, Google won’t be pushing any more Assistant updates to select third-party smart displays.

The Lenovo Smart Display, LG Xboom AI ThinQ WK9, and JBL Link View are the three smart displays in question -- and if you currently have them in your home, don’t expect to see further updates for their Assistant platform. They will, of course, continue to function as they did before this announcement, but they won’t receive any more software updates to enhance their performance.

Read more