Which SMART home speaker is right for me?

If you’re about to purchase your first SMART home speaker, you’re probably confused about your best option.

Amazon Echo is meant to be ideal for online shopping. But they say Google Home is great at understanding questions asked in various ways.

So which is better? Well, it all comes down to how you intend to use it. We’ve collated the key benefits of each device to help you with your decision.

What are SMART home speakers anyway?

SMART home speakers are wireless speaker units with built-in voice-control.

Ultimately, it’s all about the voice-controlled personal assistants. And the thrill of asking Amazon Echo’s ‘Alexa’ or Google Home’s ‘Google Assistant’ to spit out information or take action among your Bluetooth connected home devices.

So you can ask your speaker to play a certain song on Spotify. Or ask it to set a reminder to remove the muffins from the oven before they burn (again). You can even ask it to tell you a joke (which seems popular among the kids). You simply have to say ‘Okay Google’ or ‘Alexa’ and the speaker will spring to life, ready to meet your demands.

Fun fact - while this technology might seem clever, SMART actually stands for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology.

Google Home vs Amazon Echo

Here are some key comparisons between the two most popular SMART speakers:

Design

Considering it will become part of your home decor, the speaker’s design can be very important!

GOOGLE HOME

• Curvy design
• Six finishes available - fabric and metallic
• Touch panel with physical mute button
• Four LED lights to provide visual feedback
• High-quality microphone

AMAZON ECHO

• Cylindrical design
• Six finishes available - fabric, metallic, and wood
• Buttons for mute, activation, and volume
• High-quality microphone

Summary - From a visual perspective, it comes down to preference. While Google Home only had one design initially, by providing more options the speaker remains competitive on the market.

Voice Assistance

This is a key feature of the speaker. Your preference will come down to how you plan to use it.

GOOGLE HOME

• Uncreatively named ‘Google Assistant’
• Wakes up to ‘Okay Google’ (Two-word phrase makes it less likely to ‘wake up’ unintentionally)
• Performs various tasks, such as turning on lights, accessing your music, setting up a shopping list, and pulling traffic reports from Google Maps
• Programmed to understand conversational-shaped questions
• Default search engine - Google (obviously)

AMAZON ECHO

• Affectionately named ‘Alexa’
• Wakes up to ‘Alexa’ (There’s the risk of the device waking with similar-sounding words said nearby)
• Performs various tasks with a focus on online shopping, such as ordering pizza, booking an Uber, or purchasing items from Amazon’s online store
• Programmed to only understand basic commands
• Default search engine - Bing

Summary - If you’re a big online shopper (and lover of Amazon), then Alexa is for you. But if you only want to use your SMART speaker for around your home and finding out information, Google Home will fit the bill.

Music and Video

Traditionally, home speakers are used for music - and these SMART speakers are no different. But you can also use them for video.

GOOGLE HOME

• Streams from Play Music and Google Cast
• Features Spotify and TuneIn radio
• Can create groups for streaming to multiple devices, allowing multi-room audio
• Google Cast enables you to send video to a Google Chromecast. (e.g. You can ask the device to turn on the TV and play something from Netflix or YouTube without using the remote)
• Google Cast enables you to play music on any supported device as well

AMAZON ECHO

• Streams from Amazon Prime Music
• Features Spotify and TuneIn radio
• Can create groups for streaming to multiple devices, allowing multi-room audio
• Allows you to link to a Fire TV device
• Unable to play music on supported devices

Summary - Google Home provides more opportunities for music and video playback on additional devices. But if you just want to play Spotify music from the speaker itself, you might be satisfied with the Amazon Echo.

Overall summary

Basically, it all comes down to your preferences. We’re not going to influence you either way, but your local electronics store (or Google!) can further help with your research.

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References:

• Forbes - Google Home Vs Amazon Echo: A Comparison
• PC Mag - Amazon Echo vs. Google Home: Which Voice-Controlled Speaker Is Right for You?
• PC Mag -The Best Smart Speakers for 2019
• Trusted Reviews - Google Home vs Amazon Echo: Which is the best smart speaker?