Google’s ecosystem is different from Apple and Samsung’s ecosystems. You see, both of those brands center their ecosystems around a laptop and phone, using a walled garden to keep you locked in. Sure, Google has laptops and phones, but the core of the Google ecosystem is its software: YouTube, Gmail, Google TV, Gemini, Google Home—the list goes on.
This gives the Google ecosystem some unique advantages. For one, it’s much more flexible than Apple and Samsung. But ultimately, is it worth being part of the Google ecosystem?
To answer this, I went as deep as I could. While I’ve been using the Google ecosystem for years, I decided to go all out for the past month. Let’s start with the devices and explore the phones.
Here Is the Best Google Ecosystem Lineup
The Google Pixel Lineup: Budget to Premium, Which Phone Should You Choose?
The Pixel phone lineup begins with the budget-friendly Google Pixel 8A, selling for $399. It’s typically my top recommendation for Android mid-range phone buyers, offering great camera performance and an overall excellent Pixel experience.
Stepping up to the Pixel 9, you get an ultra-wide lens, a better display, and the more powerful Tensor G4 chip, which is the same chip found in the other flagship phones. Priced at $650, it’s a solid choice. The Pixel 9 Pro elevates things to flagship status with two size options. The main highlight here is the incredible 5x telephoto lens, which delivers stunning photos. You also get a more “Pro” aesthetic for $850. In my opinion, the 5x telephoto lens alone makes this phone worth considering.
Finally, the fourth phone in the lineup is the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, my daily driver. It offers the most premium experience with its folding display but comes with some compromises in the camera department. While it includes all three zooms—ultra-wide, primary, and telephoto—the sensors are slightly inferior to the other Pro phones. Nevertheless, the unfolded experience seamlessly combines the classic Pixel UI with a tablet-like interface, making it both enjoyable and productive. Starting at $1,500, it’s the most expensive option in the lineup.
The entire Pixel lineup looks consistent yet distinct, thanks to the iconic camera bar across the back, which prevents wobbling when placed on a table. The phones deliver fantastic camera performance, regardless of the model, and include powerful photo features like “Add Me” and Magic Eraser. Combined with a clean user interface, they also boast smart features like “Hold for Me,” “Now Playing,” and call screening, essentially acting as a personal assistant.
Features like calendar reminders on the lock screen and Gemini’s ability to summarize your email inbox with a single command further enhance the user experience. While the phones are not the absolute core of the Google ecosystem—you could easily use a OnePlus or Samsung phone—the Pixel lineup remains one of the most recommendable Android options.
Should You Buy the Pixel Watch 3 or Pixel Buds Pro 2?
The Pixel Wearables are full of energy in this category, but Google has two main offerings. They relate to the game; nonetheless, they have two main products: one is pretty great, and the other one is not one I recommend all that often.
Starting with the Pixel Watch 3 can do a lot of Google ecosystem things. You can control your Google TV, answer your doorbell and talk back through your watch, check out your Nest cameras, unlock your phone, and potentially even some other locks someday with ultra-wideband. The Google Assistant is at the core of your watch, and with all your Google accounts synced, the watch is much more usable than many other watches that require touches to control the entire interface.
There’s also, of course, health and fitness data syncing with Fitbit, which is now owned by Google and a part of this ecosystem. Overall, the Google Pixel Watch 3 is a fantastic watch for Android users. The aesthetic matches all the phones, the UI feels very Pixel, and much like the phones, it’s very usable from a high level with simplified information that makes your life easier. Or, you can go deep, customize, and dig into your exact health details. The ecosystem with the watch feels very real when you’re using it.
So, is it worth it to get the watch if you’re in the Google ecosystem? I would say, definitely yes.
The other wearable offered by Google is the earbuds: the Pixel Buds Pro 2. These are decent earbuds, and Google tried to make them a part of the ecosystem by integrating the earbuds’ settings with your phone’s settings app. That’s okay. You can also find the earbuds with the Find My Device app, and you can use Gemini in real-time through your earbuds, although I rarely find this particularly helpful.
Otherwise, they’re a solid pair of earbuds, perhaps not the best in any particular category. If you’re investing in the Google ecosystem, I’d recommend trying other earbuds. I don’t think you must get the Pixel Buds if you’re in the Google ecosystem. Of course, you could also consider the Pixel Buds A, a more affordable option that could save you some money. But again, that’s also a very competitive space, and there may be other more comfortable and feature-rich earbuds at that price point as well.
So, the devices are very powerful, consistent in their aesthetic, overall design, and UI, and ultimately aligned in their motive: making your life a little bit easier. They’re not something that will give you a ton of features; they’re there if you want them, but they’re meant to do the tasks for you and get out of the way.
Google Home & Matter
Out of the way, now moving on to the home devices. This is arguably the biggest hardware side of the ecosystem. These devices are all managed in the Google Home app, which can be controlled by a variety of Google or non-Google devices, such as even the iPhone.
This app has a lot to offer, from automation to quick device controls to the ability to add a ton of different devices, including many third-party devices.
Matter, for example, is a fairly new protocol used by many newer smart home devices, and it works with something like the Google Nest Hub (second gen). This device can act as your central hub, so you don’t need a hub for every single product in your house. It can connect to third-party devices, like this lock.
Level Lock Plus
This is the Level Lock Plus—it’s a new, compact, and honestly, pretty sleek smart lock that fits nicely in any ecosystem, especially the Google Home ecosystem. This lock looks and acts like a normal deadbolt—there’s even a key if you want to use it that way. You could unlock it with NFC (there are little tags that come in the box), unlock it from your phone, or use Bluetooth as well. It could also be part of Google ecosystem automation.
In the Google Home app, if you go to the Automation tab, you can set up a variety of automation for different times of the day, like when you leave or go to bed, based on various triggers.
My favorite reason for having a smart lock? You might ask, “Why would you ever need a smart lock? A key might be just as easy as using your phone.” Maybe it is—but for me, I like the peace of mind. For instance, if I’m on a road trip and 30 minutes in, I start doubting whether I locked the front door, I can check the app. Instead of driving back or worrying until I get home, I can simply see that I did lock it. If I didn’t, I could lock it remotely from my phone.
Because the Google ecosystem works well with devices like this, you have a lot of flexibility. For example, the Level Lock comes in various aesthetics to match your home. It uses the Matter-over-Thread platform, and the lock is 62% smaller than other smart locks.
Installation is easy—it takes only a couple of minutes. With something like the Nest Hub 2, for example, setup is straightforward.
Google TV & The Streamer
I won’t talk about any other party options, but if you’re interested in getting colored light bulbs or similar devices, you can add them all in the Google Home app.
Now, let’s focus on Google-specific ones. Although Google doesn’t make TVs, they do create the operating systems found on many TVs of varying qualities. I’ve recently been using Sony TVs, and having Google TV at the core allows me to control the TV from my phone, my watch, or through Google Assistant on virtually any device.
The Assistant essentially works cross-platform, enabling perfect TV control from any device. For example, I can adjust the volume, find movies within apps, search specific apps, and perform other actions.
If your TV doesn’t have Google TV, you can easily get a Google TV streamer—a new product Google launched this year to replace the old Chromecasts. This ties into the ecosystem by making it easier to cast from a Chromebook, a Chrome browser on any laptop, or your phone.
Because it’s made by Google, it has a minimal, Google-style aesthetic with muted colors and several “googly” features. For instance, you can easily locate the remote or even answer your doorbell using the remote.
Google TV is designed to learn from your preferences and trends. Since it uses your Google account, it should recommend content tailored to your interests. However, in my experience, this feature doesn’t always work perfectly. The ads displayed at the top of Google TV can make it feel less like something you own and more like a borrowed device.
Additionally, the recommendations aren’t always relevant. For example, I frequently get suggestions for Sesame Street-type content, which is completely unrelated to anything I watch.
Don’t get me wrong—I love the concept of Google TV. Unfortunately, I prefer using something less ad-filled, like Apple TV, for example.
So, is it worth getting Google TV? If you’re in the Google ecosystem, the features are undeniably amazing. However, it depends on how much you value content suggestions and whether the ads bother you.
Smart Speakers & Hubs
An essential aspect of home entertainment would be speakers, specifically smart speakers, and there are a lot of great ones that you can choose from. Google’s been making a lot of them, and the ones that I’ve really been enjoying are the ones with a display. I find it better, especially if you’re looking up a recipe in the kitchen or something like that, to have notes that you can then read.
I have two main ones that I use. One is the Google Nest Hub Gen 2, which I’ve been talking about earlier in this video for its Matter capabilities, allowing me to connect other smart home devices to it. The other one is a Google Pixel Tablet.
Now, they’re both essentially working the same way. I can ask them questions, control my entire smart home, and ask them to find my phone—the whole ecosystem ties together with the voice assistant in those hubs right there. The tablet, of course, has the added benefit of being removable from the base so you can use it as a tablet. It’s also only around $280, I think, and considering you’re getting a smart speaker and a tablet, it’s a compelling buy.
Speaking of the voice assistant, even though Google’s kind of migrating from Google Assistant to Gemini AI, ultimately, they’re basically doing the same thing.
The Voice Assistant & Gemini
The voice assistant and Gemini are essentially the same thing—they’re the core of the ecosystem, a true core. This, of course, ties everything together through your accounts.
Because Google currently has, in my opinion, the best assistant out there, their ecosystem becomes more useful in your home, more capable of answering questions, being helpful, and controlling more and more devices.
Since they are really in this strong position, anyone trying to make any kind of software or smart home device tends to ensure it plays nicely with Google. This means that if you want to buy some Hue light bulbs or a smart coffee pot, a lot of those devices will integrate very nicely with the Google Home app.
Again, this all just builds into the Google ecosystem, but it doesn’t end there. Google has been adding a lot of.
Nest Learning Thermostat
Other smart home devices, like the Nest Learning Thermostat, start to get a little further away from the core of the ecosystem. If the ecosystem were like an octopus, the thermostat would be at the end of one tentacle.
The thermostat won’t be controlling your earbuds or your phone, and it really won’t do too much beyond its specific function. However, it’s something your phone and watch can control.
For instance, if you want it to be a little warmer, rather than going downstairs and turning up your thermostat, you can simply look at your watch and change it that way or talk to your voice assistant to adjust it automatically.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi, honestly, doesn’t feel like it’s integral to the ecosystem, but Google does make some decent mesh Wi-Fi routers that, again, tie into the Google aesthetic. Unlike many other routers, which are large black boxes with antennas and flashing lights, Google’s routers have a very clean and minimal design.
They feature very few wires and very few lights. If there is a light, it’s almost always a white one, making it look nice and muted, blending better with the rest of your home.
Like many other Google Smart Home products, these routers include Matter, Thread, and integration with the Google Home app, so you can control your Wi-Fi and monitor things from your phone And, of course, one last smart home device.
Nest Camera
A standout callout is the Nest Camera. This is one that I think a lot of people don’t really think about. They’ll go and buy a Ring camera or some other camera, just whatever is on sale, maybe even on Amazon. But ultimately, I think it makes a pretty big difference if you are deep in the Google ecosystem.
It makes sense to get Nest cameras because you can interact with the camera from your phone, your TV, your watch, or your tablet, and it’s a lot easier to check in on that from any device in the Google ecosystem.
So, that’s kind of a summary of the home aspect of this and the other devices in the Google ecosystem.
The Chromebook
Honestly, I’m deeply invested in the Google ecosystem, and I’ve used Chromebooks quite a bit in the past. However, I haven’t relied on one for daily tasks in a while. I find that they’re amazing laptops for anybody who needs a home computer to watch videos, pay bills, do schoolwork, or maybe just do online shopping.
But I can’t use a Chromebook for my work. I can’t edit videos on there, I can’t really make thumbnails, and I can’t manage my business on a Chromebook, so I don’t use one on a daily basis. Therefore, I don’t feel qualified to really talk about them in this video.
That being said, I do like Chromebooks a lot, and I think they’re a great addition if you are in the ecosystem, but again, not necessary for that ecosystem.
The Ecosystem Consistency
When you picture the Google ecosystem, the products all have a similar design aesthetic: they’re clean, they’re minimal, with muted colors, and they blend into a lot of home styles. Look at the remote, the watch, the earbuds—many of them feature circles, rounded edges, and pill shapes. Google works seamlessly with many other devices as well, with almost.
Google Ecosystem Drawbacks
There are no features withheld, even if you use an iPhone. Clearly, there is a lot to like about the Google ecosystem, but it’s not perfect. There are two main drawbacks that I find with this ecosystem. One is that sometimes they don’t follow through. Google likes to launch and test so many new things, but they often abandon them or rename them, which can be confusing or even leave you feeling abandoned with a product you invested in that then gets discontinued.
For example, the old Stadia controller, the Nexus charging puck or dock, Project Soli, Google Glass—the list goes on and on with these kinds of great products when they came out, and people really liked them. But for one reason or another, Google didn’t think they sold well enough and ultimately just discontinued them.
Another drawback is, as I mentioned with the TV, the ads. Ultimately, Google offers free services because they’re an advertising platform. It’s not free for them to run Google Search, YouTube, or Gmail; running ads is their business. And like I said with the Google TV, compared to an Apple TV, sometimes it feels like you are the product and not the customer.
That’s not always true. I don’t feel that way with the Pixel phones, earbuds, watches, or many of the smart home devices, but occasionally, you get reminded that Google is an ad business. When you turn on your Google TV and see a big ad across the top, it just doesn’t feel like it’s your product.
But overall, I am a huge fan of the Google ecosystem.
Why I Keep Coming Back to the Google Ecosystem.
I’ve tried the Amazon Echo ecosystem, I’ve tried Apple HomePods a lot, but I always come back to the Google ecosystem. Primarily because I really like the phones, I really like the watches, and I think the voice assistant is just superior to the competition.
Let me know what you think about the Google ecosystem.
