With important assets of our life like phones, laptops or cars, our homes have been getting smarter too! Now you no longer must worry about getting up to switch off your lights or change the volume of your music player. It can now be achieved with simple commands to your smart home assistants. But with Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant, how do you pick one that is best suited for your home? Lucky for you, we have tested each product and here is our review!
If you are looking to get started with a smart home quickly, Alexa is your best bet! It is the easiest of the three to set up – all you need to do is plug it in and you are good to go. With over 10,000 skills and several third-party capabilities to choose from, this is one of the most widely supported smart hub. The Alexa is the lowest priced of the three, so it is great for first time smart home assistant users.
Though it comes with a plethora of benefits, the biggest drawback is that you cannot use a smartphone to operate it. Instead, you need to directly talk into the speaker itself, which can sometimes be annoying. The quality of the speaker is average and sometimes, there is a lag in response.
This smart home assistant is supported by the newer versions of Android. Google Assistant has the best use of artificial intelligence among the three as it is supported by Google search. Therefore, you are more likely to get an accurate response to your questions.
However, there are only a limited number of products that use Google Assistant. The only way to summon it is to say ‘OK Google’ every time, and it can get a little tedious. The audio quality is only average, and sometimes it can have trouble responding.
With the emphasis on privacy and data protection, Apple has ensured that the information transferred between all devices is encrypted and secure. Among the three, this is the easiest to set up on your mobile and is also the most responsive.
But like all things Apple, you need an iPhone or an iMac to operate it, which makes its usage very restrictive. Also, the stringent security features mean the accessories take longer to hit the market, which means your choices are very limited.
Which of these smart home assistants do you think is the best? Let us know in the comments below!
13 Dec 2021
