There was a time when people just image or dream about controlling everything through voice. Now, this is the 21st century and these dreams come true. “Smart Home” is the practical name of these dreams. We will talk about the best home assistant devices in this article.
Home Assistants devices refer to different Software enabled devices that facilitate smart home automation: a system to control climate, lighting, appliances, entertainment, and security through voice commands.
These are the media of communication between you and the connected devices. All the so-called Frightful Five and +1, i.e. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Samsung have introduced Home Assistants, which, in addition to being useful, have some flaws too. We will look into the performance of Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana as the others are under development yet.
Top 4 Best Home Assistant Devices easy to setup.
1.Amazon Alexa
In our best home assistant device list, the first and most used assistant is Amazone Alexa. Amazon Echo products are the best way to quickly start establishing a smart home with the help of a home assistant. They are easy to set-up and plugin. Echo Dot, Alexa’s speaker is the cheapest among the competitors, for only $50.
When it comes to devising compatibility, Alexa stands out. It is, unlike others, compatible with 7400 brands. It has about 10,000 skills and third-party capabilities, which makes it the most broadly supported smart home hub. It’s Follow-up Mode provides you the ease of giving multiple orders simultaneously. You just command one after the other and Alexa responds without reactivating.
Check also What Are IoT Devices.
Due to Alexa’s relation to Amazon, shopping is made really easy. You can have an eye on exclusive deals through Alexa and can place, cancel, or trace the orders easily. Moreover, Alexa can read the home temperature and can adjust the thermostat. Echo products can be controlled through Apple and Android devices. This home assistant is getting technical evolution faster than the other competitors.
There are only a few points of concern. Firstly, Alexa is not reliable when you need a solution to your problems in-home tasks. She is known to give irrelevant answers. Secondly, You can trigger Alexa through a smartphone, you need to talk to her through speakers. Thirdly, while its leading competitors like Google Assistant and Apple Siri are preinstalled in smartphones, Alexa losses the pace here too.
It doesn’t come pre-installed on mobile phones. Fourthly, Alexa knows only three languages. Last but not the least, in its privacy policy there is no security of the data, the third-party home accessory companies collect from your command. So, the security system controlled by Alexa is at high Risk.
2.Google Assistant
This Home Assistant comes preinstalled in the newer versions of Android phones. Google Assistant is most accurate in answering the questions and performing the tasks, as it is powered by the most developed brains of Google.
It is faster than Alexa and Siri due to newer and smarter technology. The Google Home can be installed only for $130. It can understand bilingual commands. Furthermore, It can perform multiple tasks simultaneously. For instance, say “hi Google, good morning” and it will respond by turning on the lights, telling weather predictions, and will stream music too.
There are few drawbacks which, despite its intelligence, make it stand second. Google Assistant, as compared to Alexa, is only compatible with around 1000 brands, which is far less. Although this factor makes it more secure and ecosystem friendly, for a person who needs a flexible home assistant, it is still a second option.
Moreover, It can respond to only two commands at the same time and can understand only four languages. And above all, it needs to activate by giving a special command, “O.K. Google” which is annoying at times.
3.Apple Siri
With Apple enabled products, the household would be a more streamlined experience. iPad, HomeKit devices and HomePod smart speakers are designed to work together at their best. The integration of Apple’s HomeKit makes it much easier to set up Siri with Appliances.
The best part is, the home assistant is currently familiar with 21 languages, which gives it an edge over others. Although the number of devices compatible with HomeKit is minimal, Siri ensures their effectiveness and ease. And its Privacy policy works directly with appliance manufacturers to ensure the security of data. Its Activation is as simple as giving a regular command.
The only disadvantage is that Siri is exclusive for the Apple devices. It is highly narrow in the terms of support and supports hardly 50 brands, that makes it among the least compatible home assistant. The other major disadvantage is that it doesn’t have meant voice applications.
For example, Spotify and Pandora are not accessible through it. Although having iTunes and skipping other music platform is not a bad option but still, it makes Siri less flexible.
4.Microsoft Cortana
At fourth in the best home assistant device is Microsoft Cortana. Cortana comes with Microsoft Windows10. The ecosystem of Windows10 is fully integrated with it. Cortana is almost as smart as Google Assistant as it is powered by Microsoft. It was considered a strong competition once. But as a home assistant, Cortana fell behind long ago. It supports only a few brands.
Additionally, it has a set of codes or pre-set sentences that can be used as a command. Cortana doesn’t respond to the general commands correctly. You can find many Cortana-supported speakers and devices in the market and if you get them, the integration process is a bit complex as compared to the other assistants. Probably this is the reason, that Microsoft is thinking to merge Cortana with Alexa.
This would make it more compatible with the devices. So, in the future, we may find Cortana as a partner but separate Home Assistant working alongside Alexa, or it could re-emerge as a more competent Home Assistant.
Conclusion
As technology is increasing day by day the smart home device as well and list of best home assistant devices list goes on but the best we had shown you. The entry of home assistants in the zone of Home Automation is pretty infant, but these are evolving really fast. Every day there comes the news of a new assistant launched by a network or you see an evolution in the features of already known home assistants. This may not lay much far is the future, that our home would be completely controlled by these assistants. From this tremendously fast evolution there seem visible chances of next-level automation when these assistants would be smart enough to judge and gauge the situation work mostly without any human commands.
Now if you having something about the best home assistant devices in your mind you can share them with us.?
