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When it comes to building an interconnected home that has multiple smart home devices, you must have a centralised way of controlling them. When you’ve one, two, or three devices, you can control them via an app. However, when you’ve to deal with multiple different devices, it’s a good idea to go for a hub. It unites all your home automation devices and allows you to access lights, smart blinds, cameras, video doorbells, and other devices with your voice. The hub basically acts as a communicator between different smart devices. While we haven’t mentioned it much here, Apple’s HomeKit is the other major player in the world of smart home platforms.
As a result, you can talk to control lights, door locks, thermostats, fans, and more. The biggest players in the smart home industry have products that interact with Alexa, including Philips Hue, Ecobee, and Samsung SmartThings. It will remember the context of the original question and provide the best answer. Also, when it comes to language, accent, or dialect support, it’s just hard to beat Google smart devices. When you’re planning to choose an automation ecosystem for your home, don’t forget to have an idea of serviceability and ease of troubleshooting.
Automations: It's a draw
Instead, there are dozens of third-party products from the likes of Lenovo, Bose, Sonos, Bang & Olufsen, and more that also offer full functionality from Google, Alexa, and Apple. Whether you’re asking Alexa to arm your security camera or telling Google to turn on your reading light, there’s a lot you can do with a smart assistant. Setting devices up through HomeKit means you don’t have to download secondary apps. This means you can install, view, and control the camera from one location without cluttering your phone with unnecessary apps. HomeKit is the least-used of the three major platforms, due in part to the limited number of compatible devices. However, HomeKit is the most secure of the three major platforms.
On the other hand, if you prefer the Android operating system , then Google Home may be the best pick for you. Google Home is also more streamlined and more catered toward entertainment. A Chromecast makes it possible to stream your favorite music and movies to the TV from your phone, and new additions to the Nest Hub Max allow you to stream directly to the smart display. Ultimately, the right platform depends on the devices you already use or the devices you intend to use. Although there is more compatibility between all three platforms than ever before, there are still ecosystems to keep in mind. If you are a die-hard Apple fan, then HomeKit may be the best option.
Amazon Alexa Ecosystem
You can talk to them from your phone or via a dedicated smart speaker, and the big benefit is hands-free control, so you can get your gadgets working without having to physically touch them. No one wants to spend hours fiddling with a complicated setup process. Thankfully, the vast majority of smart home devices are easy to set up, regardless of what platform they are on. One important aspect of Alexa Skills is the Smart Home Skill API. With this tool, manufacturers can have Alexa communicate with their smart appliances.
Some devices for some ecosystems allow 3rd party plugins and software tinkering, which makes them easier to service/troubleshoot. Unfortunately, Apple Homekit devices don’t support such things and as a result, they are harder to troubleshoot. Talking about Google Home vs Alexa, the latter wins the race in terms of third-party plugins and integrations. Moreover, there are tons of resources available on the internet that provide effective troubleshooting solutions.
Amazon Alexa vs. Google Home: Verdict
Apple only has one smart speaker — the HomePod — and it's relatively expensive at $299. We hope Apple expands its smart speaker lineup, but until then you're stuck with the HomePod. Of course, there are plenty of other places to use Siri — like an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV — and Siri can control smart home devices on all of those devices. Yes, you can play music on Google Home and Alexa simultaneously.
You can control settings more than ever and most data is used to simply improve the service. So if you’re concerned about privacy a little, Apple might be a better bet. If you’re concerned about privacy a lot, grab a regular speaker without a voice assistant inside. Voice assistants are an integral part of what makes a smart home system exciting to use. How smart your home can get hinges on the ability of the voice assistant that runs it. The Google Assistant currently works with over 50,000 smart home devices, according to Google.
The best smart speaker range for you depends on your preferences, your budget and which devices you own and use already. If you are looking for a high-quality single speaker, this unique smart speaker will truly be music to your ears. Google Nest speakers hold their own as smart hubs, working with compatible Philips Hue light bulbs, smart plugs, and Nest thermostats to automate your home exactly how you like it.
You can control your home via Siri, and HomeKit is already part of iOS. Another important consideration is the number of third-party devices that a platform supports. The biggest names in the smart home field (Philips Hue, LIFX, etc.) work with all three of the major platforms, but there are smaller companies that support only one of the three.
It is the poorest of the trio with support for around 450 smart devices in contrast to Alexa's and Google Home's thousands. However, HomeKit supports some popular smart home devices you'll most likely need. Testing of these devices is done in her own home to ensure that information and recommendations are based on real-world experience.
First, the devices that are compatible with all three ecosystems. In terms of music and entertainment experience, Siri prioritizes Apple’s in-house entertainment channels and cuts off most other options. Google Home’s ecosystem trails Alexa in the number of supported devices.
This is the ideal pick if you want to control your smart home from your iPhone or iPad, and it works with a fair few third-party devices along with the Apple 4K TV and HomePod Mini. If you’re surrounded by Apple tech at home, it’s the obvious choice but it doesn’t integrate with as many smart home devices as Google or Alexa do. For a full list of compatible gadgets, check out this page on Apple’s website – and the roundup of our favourite HomeKit devices here. The Google Assistant and Siri are also very popular smart assistants because they come built into most new Android and Apple devices.
However, things are completely different when you want to set up an integrated, future-proof full smart home. Some smart devices can work with multiple platforms, whereas some just don’t. Therefore, it’s a great idea to first choose an ecosystem and then select those devices that can communicate well within that smart home ecosystem. While you technically can have both Google and Alexa speakers together under one roof, we think that’s more fuss than it’s worth. You’d be best off picking the one you prefer and keeping everything connected to a single platform.
Google Home is a bit smaller at 5.6 by 3.8 inches, and doesn't get quite as loud as the Echo. It produces a very well-rounded sound that should please most listeners, but it won't be enough to fill your living room when you have guests. However, you can use multiple Google Homes together, and you can pair Google Home with a Chromecast Audio ($79.96 at Walmart) and your own speaker system. At most, you can initiate a call on your smartphone and then use your HomePod as a speakerphone for that call. In terms of parental controls, you can disable purchases via Alexa, but the speakers have been known to play explicit content.
Set automatic feeding schedules for your dog or cat with Smart Feed, which you control through your phone . The HomePod doesn't appear to have Bluetooth, but it will support Apple's new AirPlay 2 standard for streaming Apple Music from your Mac and various iOS devices. While Google Cast works with Android and iOS devices, however, AirPlay is an iOS-only system. Similarly, GoogleHome can understand English, French, German and Japanese, though switching between each language isn’t an automatically recognized feature yet. Google has also mentioned that it plans to support over 30 languages by the end of 2018.
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