Smart Home Integration

Amazon Echo and Google Home aren’t just smart speakers; they’re smart home platforms that connect your devices so you can control everything with your voice or through their respective mobile apps. Amazon’s and Google’s voice control assistants also integrate with home automation systems like Control4 to bring the convenience of voice control to more complex smart homes.

It’s hard to find a smart home device that doesn’t integrate with Alexa or Google Assistant. Both platforms work with tens of thousands of devices that span every category: lights, locks, thermostats, video doorbells, refrigerators… you name it. And they’re adding new products all the time.

Like we mentioned, Alexa and Google Assistant work with other smart home devices and systems as well. For example, use Amazon Echo or Google Home speakers to command your Lutron lighting and shading control system, your Sonos multiroom speaker system, Nest and ecobee devices, and more.

SEE ALSO: 4 Convenient Ways to Control Your Smart Lighting System

Ease of Use

When it comes to controlling your Park City, UT smart home by voice, the more natural the commands, the better. While Alexa and Google Assistant require specific and often repetitive syntax when activating devices, Google Assistant seems to edge out Alexa in ease of use.

With Google Assistant, you can stack commands. For instance, tell Google to “lower the shades and turn on the bedroom lights” rather than splitting those commands into two sentences. Still, both Google Assistant and Alexa require you to hardcode voice commands and memorize names for devices and rooms, which can be frustrating and unintuitive.

Privacy

Privacy is unsurprisingly a top concern for homeowners interested in voice control for their smart home. Amazon and Google don’t have the best reputations for putting privacy first. They’ve both been known to allow employees to listen in on recordings stored on their servers to improve voice recognition performance, and let’s not forget about Alexa’s creepy laughing spree that happened a few years ago.

Fortunately, both platforms offer a few ways to boost your privacy if you’re feeling skeptical. You can mute the microphone on your smart speaker when you’re not using it, and you can review and delete interactions stored on the cloud. However, if you don’t delete any data, don’t be surprised if either tech giant uses your stored recordings to tailor personalized ads to you in the future.

Is There a Better Option?

Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are fine options for smart home voice control, but some homeowners may pause at their unintuitive commands and questionable security. Is there a better option for the luxury smart homeowner? Enter Josh.ai. More than a smart speaker, Josh is a privacy-based luxury home control system that delivers an effortless living experience through natural commands.

Stay tuned for our last blog in this voice control series, where you’ll learn all about Josh.ai and the power, privacy, and convenience it offers homeowners who don’t settle for anything less than the best.

If you’re interested in adding voice control capability to your smart home, contact Show & Tell AV to learn more! You can reach us here or send us a message in the chat box below.