Google Working on 'Chirp' to Take on Amazon Echo: Report

Recode reports that Google's device to compete against Amazon's Echo has been internally codenamed "Chirp" and will look like the company's OnHub wireless router.

The report citing sources suggests that the "Chirp" won't launch at the company's annual developer I/O conference kicking off next week. It however adds there are high chances that the product may be teased in some ways at the IO 2016. We can expect that Google's 'Chirp' device may respond to the company's signature voice command, "Okay, Google."

It seems Google is not the only one working on an Echo rival as Sony was also rumoured back in February to be working on a speaker powered by a voice and gesture based virtual assistant.

On similar lines, Samsung at its Developer Conference event launched the Otto voice-based virtual assistant robot, which was considered as the company's move to take on the Amazon Echo. Otto was one of the latest developments by Samsung in the field of Internet of Things. The robot from Samsung was designed to answer questions about the weather and control connected devices and appliances.

In the meanwhile, Amazon's Alexa, answer to Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's Now, started powering a smartwatch last month.

Chinese company iMCO introduced the CoWatch smartwatch on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo and the biggest highlight of the wearable was that it integrated the voice-capabilities of Amazon's cloud-based voice assistant, Alexa. To recall, Amazon's Alexa voice assistant recently was integrated to give Fitbit progress updates to users. Launched in late 2014, Alexa powered Amazon's cylinder-shaped speakers Echo and Fire TV devices.

A recent report said that Google's standalone VR headset will be "definitely" launched next week presumably at Google IO event.