Modern technology has improved greatly over the years. Now, we have a lot of options to spice up our homes. From reminding us to take our medicines to check our house for leaks, you can rely on your smart assistant to make your life much easier.
Right now, the two competing smart home assistants are Alexa by Amazon and Google Home Assistant. In this blog, we’ll give you details about each of them, and recommend the best one for you.
Quick Rundown Of Smart Home Assistants
If you want basic functionalities, the available smart home assistants do not differ much. However, upon digging deeper, you can see more things that certain services make it better for some people.
Amazon Alexa
Arguably one of the most popular smart assistants is Alexa by Amazon. This smart home is controlled by a speaker called Alexa Echo which you can give voice commands to. There’s a wide variety of commands you can say to do certain things you want. All you need to do is call out the smart assistant by saying the name “Alexa” before you say the command.
Google Home Assistant
Alexa’s number one competitor is from another tech giant, Google. This company is known for developing a lot of applications that work well together. From the Google Workspace where Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar can all be connected, the company now stepped up and created the Google Nest which is essential for some smart homes.
Unlike Amazon, Google Home Assistant does not have a dedicated name. Instead, you’ll say the words, “Hey, Google,” before you give out the command. The good thing about the Google Home Assistant is that it can follow up to three strings of commands after being called, which makes it convenient.
What About Samsung’s Galaxy Home?
Samsung has announced in August 2018 that the tech giant will now be stepping into the smart home game. However, they have been quiet ever since. The Galaxy Home Mini appeared in public beta in August 2019 but a public release is yet to be announced.
Since third-party integration might be an issue since there’s a lot of specific smart devices that only work with either Alexa or Google Home, Samsung might be putting off with releasing their own Galaxy Home technology.
Which Smart Home Assistant Is The Best For You?
Both Alexa and Google Assistant are arguably good at making our lives much easier. However, there are some areas where one of them shines better than the other. Depending on your routine, you might want to get a different smart home assistant.
Here’s a quick rundown of what functions each smart home assistant shines in.
Custom Commands
While both smart assistants already have a lot of commands that can make your life easier, sometimes, there are just custom commands that we want to be added to our virtual assistants. You might even have routines where you want your smart assistant to execute a series of multiple commands to achieve your desired results.
If that’s the case, Google Assistant will definitely make your life much easier. There are already ready-made routines for workday, mornings, bedtime, leaving home, and even commuting to work. You can also create custom Routines that can turn on personal results. It can be triggered by certain phrases you can customize.
You can also add custom commands to Alexa, however, it’s limited with one per action. The good news is that it can be triggered by other smart devices such as Door & Window sensor connected to it.
Winner: Google Home Assistant
Google Home Assistant with its routines that can execute multiple custom commands is certainly a good deal. For example, you might want to turn down certain lights when you’re watching a movie or start your daily routine with some news followed by playing your favorite Spotify playlist.
For forgetful people such as the elderly, remembering the exact phrasing of the commands you input can be troublesome. This is why Google Assistant is much better when it comes to routines.
However, Amazon takes it a step further and you can even use motion sensor devices to automate certain functions. The only problem is that you’re only limited to one action per command. Google does have motion sensor capabilities but they’re not integrated with commands yet.
If one of these technologies improves and incorporates what’s lacking, then we will have a clear-cut winner.
Video Doorbells
Video doorbells have become increasingly useful lately. It’s a much easier and convenient way of finding out who’s at the door without even leaving your room. This can also be useful in some cases where you need to add a layer of extra protection for yourself.
Google Assistant has a lot of nice features when it comes to video doorbells. Since the speaker can be connected to Google Nest, you can buy a Nest Hello doorbell from Google for a lot more functionality in your smart home.
When the doorbell is pressed, it will trigger other Nest devices and show you who is at the front door through the Nest Hub. The Nest Audio speaker can also announce who is at your front door through facial recognition.
On the other hand, Alexa works better with other third-party video doorbells, offering more flexibility when it comes to your smart home devices. It can provide live feedback of your backyard with just a few taps.
Winner: Google video doorbell
Unless you’re not too keen on buying another brand of video doorbell, Google Assistant certainly has a lot more advantages. The facial recognition function along with the speaker announcement of who’s at the door is certainly going to be useful in a lot of cases.
However, if you don’t want to buy a Google Nest video doorbell and would rather get a cheaper alternative, then Alexa can be a good choice for you. You might sacrifice some functionality but if video doorbells are not your priority then you have nothing to lose.
Taking Notes
When it comes to taking notes as reminders, your smart home can also help with that. It is inconvenient to write things down in sticky notes as you might not even remember where you pinned them to. However, with a simple command, your smart home assistants can remind you about anything and you can access these reminders from your own phone.
With Alexa, it has its own app where it stores all the reminders you’ve listed down through the assistant. It can easily be downloaded and you can find all the things you noted there.
Google transfers all the notes with integration with another Google application, Google Keep. It’s integrated with the other Google Workspace apps such as calendar and docs, among other things.
Winner: Google Keep
A lot of people rarely use the Alexa app to check their own notes. Google Keep is still one of the leading note-taking app available for download for both iOS and Android. Because of this, it’s easy to see why more people prefer Google Home Assistant when they need to remember a lot of things.
This can be useful for elderly people too, as you can easily integrate the reminders into your calendars. You can also easily use repeating reminders for important things such as taking medicines or checking your blood pressure.
Detectors
Where a smart home shines best is the ability to see problems in your house even before you notice them. With the arrival of devices that can detect gas, smoke, and even just sensor, it’s a good idea for many, especially elderly people, to install smart home devices in their houses.
Gas detectors and smoke detectors are two of the most important ones that can immediately help you when there is an emergency in your house. You can also install an indoor siren to alert you. Furthermore, there are also detectors made specifically for security purposes such as a door and window scanner and motion sensors.
Safety detectors for the house are one of the most basic functions of a smart home assistant. It goes without saying that both Google Play and Alexa excel in this function. You can use any third-party device and it will work well with both assistants without much hassle.
Bonus: Android Users
If you’re using an android phone, you can have more advantages with Google Assistant. It’s much easier to access with just a long press on your android device. Google Assistant is also more integrated with android.
However, you have to take note that Alexa works well with an android phone too. While Google does have extra functionality, it’s not a deal-breaker for most people.
Final Thoughts
While this comprehensive guide about which smart home assistant is better, you have to take note that each company will continuously improve its own technology. Google has promised long ago that it will integrate other smart devices such as motion sensors in its routine commands but right now, Alexa has the upper hand in this function.
We will keep you updated on our blog regarding any new information about smart home devices on our blog. Meanwhile, you can check out our products to find great deals on smart home devices.