Amazon Alexa or Google Home?

Add-ons Bindings
1

Hello,

I’ve searched a little but seems the thread asking this are a little old.
BTW, I would like to buy one of those nice speakers to use with OpenHAB2 as well.
Which of those are better integrated in openHAB2?

I’m in Italy, so, for now only Google Home is available, and in the next months Amazon Echo should arrive too.
So it’s only a matter of time to choose which will give me fun (I hope) in controlling my “smart” home.

Many thanks for your suggestions!!

Simon

2

I have not tested Google Home yet.

But here are some infos you might consider:

  • you can use google home without a google home device.
    Just use the assistant on your android phone
  • Alexa has very brief answers like “OK”, wich I really like.
    Wheras Google answers with copmplete sentences like “Ok, I set the temreature to XX °C”
  • I will properbly change to Google Home in the next months, because I am using the Google eco system a lot.
    The Google Assistant already has “all” of my data (like calendar). Amazon only knows my smart home and my online orders.
3

Thanks @christoph_wempe for the answer.
What about the implementation on OpenHAB2? Are bot well supported?
Any other opinion is well accepted.
Thanks, Simon

4

I am using Alexa and it’s working like a charm. There is actively community involvement in updating the Alexa skill. However, I used the AWS ecosystems a lot so the choice was obvious for me.

5

Hanks @HAmmar,
Does someone know if it’s possible to change the language of an Amazon Echo as soon it’s availabe in my country? I klnow I could purchase it elsewhere meanwhile, but I should interact with it in english.
If it’s possible to switch later to italian, I could start thinking in purchase it earlier :slight_smile:

6

Yes, the device firmware is language independent. As new languages become available, they appear in the drop down languages menu in the app/web app.

7

Thank you!
Simon

8

Hi All, I’m also planning of buying waterproof Smart Speaker and the Choice is odd - Alexa or Google. So did anything change since last post - is both Alexa and Google good supported in OH and it’s a question of other features??

9

In my experience, alexa is fast, reliable.
google home has been slow and inconsistent. If I tell google to turn on a light, then tell google to turn it off, the second command fails after a long pause. Sometimes I tell google to turn on and it says “power controls are not yet implemented” or provides web results of a search for "turn on ". To be fair, I did find alexa had difficulty if you used the word “room” in the name of your light.