https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/4/16407344/google-home-mini-announced-price-release-date-smart-speaker

Google announced a smaller companion to its Google Home smart speaker today, called the Home Mini. The device, which will cost $49, is very much like Amazon’s Echo Dot: it takes Google’s voice-controlled Alexa competitor, Google Assistant, and packs it into a smaller, quieter, and cheaper form factor.

It’s not designed explicitly to play music. Rather, it’s meant to get the Google Assistant into more rooms of your home, making it better for getting news and schedule updates, listening to podcasts, and sending instructions to other Google-connected products like a Chromecast Audio-equipped speaker. Google says it will also connect wirelessly to any any speaker with Chromecast built in.