The $49 Home Mini is Google's answer to the Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon rolled out a selection of new Echo products a week ago, in a move designed to cement the company’s position as the leader of voice assistant technology.

At its hardware event today, Google announced its Echo Dot competitor, called the Home Mini. A companion to the Google Home, it will offer much the same functionality, but in a far smaller, cheaper package.

You can use it to stream music, control your home, send instructions to other Google products, get answers to questions, check your calendar, and more, all using voice controls.

Google says the sound quality from the tiny speaker is quite good, but you can always connect it to any Chromecast speaker if you want better audio.

Google Home Mini costs $49 and will be available to buy from October 19, with pre-orders starting today at the Google Store, Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Verizon and more. It will be available in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, and soon Japan. It comes in Coral, Chalk, and Charcoal colors.