[Update: Purchase no longer required] Google launches Assistant referral contest for free Home Max

The Google Store is hosting a “Google Assistant Refer a Friend Sweepstakes” where you can win a Home Max anytime your special link is used to make a purchase. This contest is a somewhat odd way for Google to increase Assistant adoption and sales by leveraging your social circle.

A promotional email from “Your Google Assistant” sent out this afternoon details the sweepstake. It contains a “custom link” to the Google Store that tracks and associates any purchase made as one entry for you. While Google in the email touts a discounted Home Mini 2-pack deal ($58 vs $98), any purchase on the Store will count towards winning the Home Max. This includes purchases you directly make and those made by others using that special URL.

Update 5/23: Google has “updated the rules of the Home Max sweepstakes” according to an email sent a day after the original. The company has removed the need for you or another person with your link to make a purchase in order to qualify for the giveaway. To enter, those selected for this Google Assistant referral contest can just click the custom URL in the message, while “Unlimited entries” are no longer possible.

“Unlimited entries” are possible, with the full terms and conditions available here. The sweepstakes began on Wednesday, May 22nd and ends a month later on June 22nd. It appears that this contest only has one winner.

The Google Assistant Refer a Friend Sweepstakes (the “Sweepstakes”) is a Sweepstakes where participants must share a custom link with a friend that routes them to https://store.google.com/, and if that friend purchases via that link, they’ll be entered for a chance to win a prize. They can also be entered if the participant themselves purchase from that website via the custom URL.

This is a strange way for Google to boost Assistant adoption, and the chances of winning seem quite low. Alongside the rebranded Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max announcement, the Home Max was permanently discounted at I/O 2019 to $299. The Home Max makes for an interesting prize in light of the new Smart Display coming this summer, but it is still Made by Google’s most expensive smart speaker.

In terms of how widespread this Google Assistant referral contest is, only one of my two accounts associated with Assistant received this email, while there are other reports on social media.