Google looks like its making a change in how it handles lists with Google Home. We use Google Keep a ton. Shared grocery lists are really great… and having you tell Home to add and item to the shared list is perfect. Well, was perfect. Starting April 10th, Google Home will instead add the item to a list in their Express shopping app.
Google Express has a list feature, but it’s not shared between people. It’s really intended only for your self to help with ordering online. This means that when my wife adds to the shopping list on Google Home, she can no longer view it later on her phone. Google Home is attached to my account so its only available to my shopping list on Express. And unlike now, she won’t be able to add to it when she’s away from home using google keep or any other app.
We have basically have three sets of lists that we use. Groceries, CostCo and ‘misc’. (Of course, I’m ignoring the holiday specific lists…) Shared lists is fundamental for us. This all makes Google Home slightly less useful to us. I’m still waiting for Wink integration like I have with Alexa. It is very disappointing.
Starting April 10th, I’ll only be using Google Home like an audio chromecast with speakers… for music or random questions. Most of my music is in my Google account, and I have chromecasts setup around my house. But I’ll end up switching to our Alexa for our and lists in addition to our podcasts and smarthome integration. I’d love to see Alexa support Google Keep, but I doubt that would happen. Any.do may be better for us though.