If you’re considering a voice assistant for your home, you’ll likely decide between Alexa and Google Home. Both are market leaders in the field, but which is right for you? This blog post will compare the two devices side-by-side to help you decide.
Common features
Alexa and Google Home can both understand what you say to them. They can answer your questions, which is helpful if you don’t want to write something down. They can also do other things like set reminders or alarms, play music, or tell you the weather for tomorrow.
Both devices have been designed to control and interact with other Smart Home compatible devices such as lights, thermostats, air conditioners, and all other smart devices. It improves home automation capabilities at home.
Alexa
Alexa is a smart voice assistant born in the house of Amazon that is activated by simply saying the name Alexa. To get Alexa working, just download the reference app, which you can find on the Android and Apple stores. The app configures the settings and the many different skills the voice assistant can perform.
- Stream music from Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.
- Send messages, both text, and voice, to other users using the application.
- Get news updates from NPR, CNN, and more.
- Get weather, traffic, and sports updates.
- Set alarms and timers.
- Add items to your shopping list.
- Control compatible smart home devices.
Google Home
Google Home is a smart speaker that Google created. You can use it to connect to other home automation devices using your home wireless network. Google Home responds to questions asked by the user with intelligent answers. There are different models of Google Home, some with lower costs, others with more features, and a higher price range.
Some of the things you can do with Google Home are:
- Get real-time answers, record voice, including weather, traffic, finance, sports, and more.
- Play, pause, and rewind content from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and other supported apps.
- Discover and buy products from Google and partner retailers.
- Order a pizza from Domino’s, UberEats, Grubhub, and more.
- Dim the lights or set the temperature with compatible devices.
Choosing a device for iPhone users
Is Alexa or Google home better with iPhone? You might want to get the Amazon Echo if you are an iPhone user. Alexa is also compatible with the Apple, iPad, and iPod touch running iOS 8.0 or later. Google Home is not compatible with any Apple products. However, Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio are all compatible with both devices.
So, which one is better?
Two devices use the same technology. But people might think that they can use different services. People might also have different brands of devices that they want to connect to make their lives easier.
Before buying one of the two devices, it is important to know which devices are compatible with Amazon Alexa and which devices are compatible with Google Home. It will help you make the best purchase possible. It should also be noted that Amazon Echo and Google Home have different lines of devices.
There are more Amazon devices than Google devices. And Amazon devices have more specific features, which make them more expensive. But Google has fewer devices, but the ones it does have work just as well as Amazon’s competitors. As a personal voice assistant, Alexa is excellent at performing tasks and has many skills. Her connection protocol is also very good.
On the other hand, Alexa can connect to Wi-Fi better than Google. Therefore, an Amazon device will work better with smart home automation than a Google device.
Conclusion
In the end, it all comes down to personal preference. If you want a voice assistant that is more affordable and can still perform many tasks, then go with Google Home. But if you want a voice assistant that is slightly more expensive but can connect to more devices and has more skills, then go with Amazon Echo.
