A new rumor suggests that Google could end up launching a $159 pair of Bluetooth earbuds at its October 4th event next week Wednesday. The earbuds would be wireless thanks to the Bluetooth technology, but the rumor also notes that the pair of buds would still be connected by a wire between them instead of being truly wireless like Samsung’s second-generation Gear IconX earbuds, and the many others which have been announced over the past 9 months from brands like Bose, JBL and others.
In addition to these earbuds potentially coming to market from Google with an unveiling next week, it’s suggested that they could also come integrated with Google Assistant and feature a dedicated button that would allow users to interact with it by pressing said button, though Assistant would still be capable of being activated through voice like with any other product that it’s been integrated into. What’s more, 9To5Google reports that a similar sounding pair has potentially already been in development. Since this is still just a rumor though there is every possibility that Google may not release them, especially considering they would be competing with a number of other earbuds products which are truly wireless. As noted Samsung is already on route to launching its second pair of truly wireless earbuds, and one of Google’s other biggest rivals, Apple, already offers a pair as well, so Google would be launching a product that would be competing with technology that’s more advanced.
The benefit to having something like this from Google might be the Google Assistant action button, but the nice thing about other truly wireless earbuds that are already available is that many if not all of them will already support the use of Google Assistant through voice by way of the integrated earbud mic, so long as Google Assistant is available on the connected phone itself, meaning consumers already have a number of choices for Bluetooth wireless earbuds that can interact with Assistant for tons of hands-free functionality. Whether or not Google does plan to unveil its own pair of Bluetooth earbuds with Google Assistant onboard is still unclear, but the event is just days away so more information may pop up before long. Another thing to consider is that Google could always end up announcing a pair of Google Assistant-powered earbuds at some point further down the road.