Do you have lighting in your home connected to Wi-Fi or a Smart TV? Those are great reasons to buy a smart home assistant, but far from the only ones. These devices can open the doors to new possibilities throughout your home. We’re going to tell you the top three reasons why you should pick up a new smart home assistant today, and touch on three of the top smart home ecosystems consumers should consider.
The Best Reasons to Buy a Smart Home Assistant
You may already have smart devices in your home, but do you have one gadget to rule them all? That’s what a smart home assistant can do, but that’s only one reason you should think about buying one. These brainy devices can help you save energy and improve security with the right accessories but are also incredibly useful on their own.
Accessibility
The top reason to buy a smart home assistant is for accessibility and ease of use. Simply put, when properly installed, these devices can make life simple and give you more free time around the house. They can also allow people with disabilities better access to things from browsing the internet to simply opening doors.
One of the perks of smart devices is automation. Have a house full of children and your hands are always full? Using a smart home assistant can solve some of those problems. You can use your voice to turn on television sets to entertain children or yourself. You’ll also never forget important tasks when your voice assistant at home reminds you.
Smart home assistants with built-in screens double as entertainment devices, while letting you track everything from grocery lists to appointments with the doctor. They live up to their namesake by assisting people with tasks and freeing up time for their users. That includes people that have plenty of time but have trouble using certain devices or services.
Smart home assistants can help ease burdens on people with health or mobility issues. You can ask the Home Pod to open your blinds in the morning or unlock the door for a guest. Need to check on a prescription or place an order? Assistants like Alexa can take care of that, and you’ll never have to lift a finger or move around your home.
Sync Smart Devices in Your Home
Another big reason to purchase a smart assistant for your home is if you already own smart devices. Do you have a set of Philips Hue smart lights or a keyless door lock connected to your phone? Both of these gadgets and security cameras from Blink and others pair perfectly with Smart Home Assistants.
The assistant acts as a “hub” allowing you to sync up devices in your home. Given the number of smart gadgets available, the ability to control them all from one location should not be overlooked. Smart home assistants all work with voice control. That means you can put away the remote controls and use the hub to handle most of the smart devices in your home.
This is where compatibility comes into play, however. Before you set your mind on a certain brand of smart home assistant, check on compatibility. Some protocols allow you to use any device on a network with a little tinkering, but Apple, Google, and Amazon’s hubs have excellent compatibility as well. Your digital smart safe might work with the Nest Hub from Google but could be incompatible with the Echo Show.
Additional Features
The term “smart home assistant” refers to any device that acts as a hub for connected gadgets in a home. Consumer-friendly smart home devices essentially take a “virtual” assistant like Siri and give it a physical form outside of a smartphone or slate. That form factor varies from one manufacturer to the next but always brings intelligent features to the table.
While you can ask Google or Siri to pull up a song on your smartphone, using them through a dedicated smart home assistant or hub kicks things up a notch. One standard feature all the best smart home assistants have is speakers. That means you can play music or a podcast anywhere in your home by asking your assistant to put on a playlist or station.
Premium smart home assistants with built-in screens take things further with features like video calling and tutorials. You can use that display with a cooking tutorial in the kitchen. It’s also a great way to make video calls to family and friends or enjoy streaming media. What that in mind, not every streaming app is available, so don’t expect to watch HBO Max on the Alexa Show.
Most smart home assistants have additional skills as well. You can combine these to set up a combination of automations for any room or your entire home. Want the blinds open in the morning and your TV set to ESPN or the stock market? That’s possible as long as you have the right smart home assistant, skills, and gadgets.
The Best Smart Home Assistants
From Zigbee to Alexa, there are dozens of ways to make your home smarter with hubs and other devices. IFTTT (If This Then That) and Home Assistant are the backbones of some ecosystems, but we’re going to focus on three consumer-friendly options. Now that you know the best reasons to buy a smart home assistant, the top options for the average homeowner come from Apple, Google, and Amazon.
Amazon’s Smart Range of Assistants
While smart assistants act as a hub for connected devices, that’s only possible if those gadgets are compatible with your hub. Apple and Google have done a great job with that, but they don’t come close to Amazon and Alexa.
You can find Amazon’s virtual assistant on soundbars, TVs, and dozens of other devices including the Echo line of products. Google’s intelligent voice assistant is also available on a number of products outside the mobile realm, but it’s not particularly close. As for Siri, she stays in Apple’s ecosystem.
You can control your home with Amazon’s smart speakers like the Dot or Echo Studio. In our opinion, the Echo Show collection provides the most bang for the buck. These affordable smart home assistants all have touchscreen displays, but are cheaper and can do more than the competition. They also range in size from the Echo Show 5 to the large 15.6-inch Echo Show HD.
All Echo Show models have a similar set of features including Alexa and access to Amazon’s suite of services and apps. They aren’t as open as the Nest family with streaming content, but you can sync up to devices from Matter and Zigbee along with options from Blink, Nest, and others.
One of the most popular models is the Echo Show 10, which has a 13MP camera for video calls and motion tech that keeps the users in the frame. The Echo Show 8 isn’t as large and can’t track our motion, but it has just as many flagship features. It’s less than half the price of the Show 10. Alternatively, the Echo Show 15 has a tablet-like form factor and looks great mounted on a wall.
- Powered by Alexa, use your voice to control your home including security cameras, doorbells, and lights
- 10.1" touchscreen display for video calls and content
- Motion tracking with auto-framing keeps users in the picture at all times
- Zigbee and Matter compatible along with an array of smart devices
The Apple Ecosystem
Apple has been at the forefront of intelligent assistants with Siri, although the company took a while to break into the home automation niche. Their two current smart home assistants don’t have touchscreen displays but still have the sense of style that made the company famous.
The premium HomePod has a woofer along with five beamforming tweeters for balanced sound and clarity. The speaker takes advantage of the company’s Spatial Audio technology and uses Room Sensing to tune in the audio. You can take calls through the speaker, listen to music, or tell Siri to adjust compatible gadgets in your home.
Apple’s assistant may not have a display, but it does have a built-in humidity and temperature sensor. It provides remote access to your home while you’re away and can recognize smoke alarms through sound recognition technology. The HomePod is priced at a premium, but the HomePod mini has a more attractive price point.
- Immersive sound through a 20mm woofer and five beamforming tweeters
- Room sensing technology provides Hi-Fi audio in any room
- Powered by Apple Silicon and Siri
- Distinct, modern style
(Please note that as of July 19th, 2023, the Apple HomePod 2nd Generation, Midnight is currently unavailable on Amazon. Please check back later.)
Make Your Home a Nest
Google gives homeowners two options when it comes to virtual home assistants. The Nest Audio and Nest Mini 2nd gen are smart speakers, while the Nest Hubs have displays. Google’s Hubs provide more features overall, but only the 10-inch Nest Hub Max comes equipped with a camera.
The Nest Hub Max and the 7-inch version allow access to popular streaming apps like Disney+ and Netflix along with Google’s services. Both have touchscreen displays and speakers, although the larger Hub Max is the best choice for movies or music. It has stereo speakers along with a 6.5MP camera and a 1,280 x 800 display.
If you don’t need a screen to monitor security cams or make video calls, the Nest Audio or Mini are excellent alternatives. They are just as smart but without screens and considerably cheaper at around $49 for the mini and $99 for the Nest Audio. The only downside is availability if you like to shop on Amazon, so you’ll need to get Google smart hub through their official site or retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target.
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The Wrap-Up
Smart home assistants are a great way to extend your reach at home without ever leaving the couch. They are the best way to link up automated devices and smart gadgets, and something more consumers turn towards each year. All of the options on our list are stellar but have particular areas where they shine.
Apple’s hub doesn’t have a screen yet, but it does have an audio system that puts other assistants to shame. If you’re looking for a smart home assistant with a touchscreen display, Google and Amazon are the best choices — even if both devices largely accomplish many of the same things. If you’re torn between those two ecosystems, this breakdown of the Echo Show against the Nest could make things simple.
- Echo Show 10
- Powered by Alexa, use your voice to control your home including security cameras, doorbells, and lights
- 10.1" touchscreen display for video calls and content
- Motion tracking with auto-framing keeps users in the picture at all times
- Zigbee and Matter compatible along with an array of smart devices
- Apple HomePod 2nd Generation, Midnight
- Immersive sound through a 20mm woofer and five beamforming tweeters
- Room sensing technology provides Hi-Fi audio in any room
- Powered by Apple Silicon and Siri
- Distinct, modern style
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