Google is holding an event on October 9th, at which we’re expecting to see the new generation of Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. But an event revealing just a new pair of flagship phones is bush league these days; If you really want to rival Amazon and its 70 new devices, you’re going to need to bring a few surprises.
That’s why we’re expecting Google to also unveil a few new smart home devices, most notably a Google Home with a screen to compete with Amazon’s Alexa Show. We’ve already seen the Google Home Hub leak in a series of renders, but a new set of documents from the Federal Communications Commission seemingly make the device more real, and give us a clue about how close we are to launch date.
The FCC filing was spotted by 9to5Google and carries the Google model number H1A, which lines up with previous Google Home audio devices, which have been named H0 and up. The majority of the documents are still confidential, but from what the FCC has made publicly available, we can see that there’s an oval-shaped base where the FCC label will be attached. It also has at least a Wi-Fi radio, which is utterly unsurprising.
Potentially, this could be a new Google Home speaker, or some other kind of device (like a charging station) entirely. But given the render we’ve already seen, and the fact that Google has already licensed other companies to put the Google Assistant into displays, this being the Google Home Hub would be very unsurprising.
Assuming that’s the case, the Home Hub’s appearance at the FCC points to an unveiling in the near future. Devices don’t tend to show up at the FCC until weeks or a month before their release, so everything is very much on track for an unveiling at the Google event in October.
