Hi everyone
with both devices having heavy discounts for black Friday im thinking about buying some more Google home minis but I have recently been wondering if I should dip my toes into the alexa ecosystem does anyone have any opinions on what device is better should I get more Google homes or should I try alexa?
What can one device do that the other cant?
Who owns both?
What device do you prefer?
I have both and one of the google mini’s is still in the box, never opened, for past year. I prefer Alexa b/c for me it’s easier to create your own skill. I’m a prime member and buy a good bit of stuff via amazon so that also makes it easier. I have several echo’s and one echo Plus and I really like the Plus. It can fill a room with music all on it’s own, connect via bluetooth to other speakers, and has a 3.5mm jack if the sound system has no bluetooth. It also has zigbee bridge built in so connecting to those type devices is very simple.
Just my 2 cents.
I’m also thinking of getting either Alexa or Google Nest Mini, and I think I’ll go with Alexa, because it’s cheaper:)
I like alexa for the hue emulation. I am fairly certain google does not support this.
Currently i have massive problem with my Alexa’s. Very very poor sound quality at the dots, Dots going offline all the time and not understandig commands. Amazon is doing a bad job at the moment.
Tomorrow i will setup a Google mini and see …
I agree that Google Assistant can be frustrating, particularly since Google constantly changes things without telling users what they’ve changed or why. However, I don’t know if Amazon is better or worse in that regard.
I recently gifted my dad a Nest Hub, and I found that the audio is much better than my Google Home and Home Mini speakers. More importantly, the screen is excellent and adjusts really well to ambient light, making for a wonderful photo frame. I’m going to pick one up so that I can have my family’s shared Google Photos album running all of the time on my kitchen counter.
Thanks everyone for the replys as always
Looks like alexa is the better device or at least the more popular device
Few questions it’s quicker too ask users than search the entire fourom
Can openhab send mp3 files for alexa too play the Google home can using the chromecast binding
Can you use rules too get alexa too talk Google home can using the say command
Can you set an alarm on alexa using openhab? Google home can’t this would be cool for the echo dot with an integrated clock
can openhab enable & disable alexas microphone you can’t with Google home
I know alexa has an intercom feature Google home doesn’t this could also be useful in my home
Google home does not support this at least the minis do not they may do in the future im unsure
But the new nest mini has a special Intergrated chip that is allows it too do some of the more common tasks locally and makes it less reliant on the cloud I do not know what these tasks are
Let me know how it goes and what device you prefer
I agree with that I have had my trigger words stop working as they have suddenly decided too use that trigger word for specific tasks then I had too change things around too get it working again pretty annoying
Google Home does have an intercom and it is probably the #1 use we have for them in our home. Not only can I broadcast to all the homes, I can do it remotely.
What it doesn’t support is point-to-point though. I can’t, for example, broadcast to a specific speaker, at least not yet. Or maybe you can, I’ve not yet bothered to research how/ to do it.
Just use “hey Google, broadcast” or “send broadcast”. My only complaint about it though is it will only send the audio for the text that it recognizes, and I’d like it to accept a little bit longer pause before thinking the message is done.
Personally, I’m very satisfied with the Google devices. But I don’t use them for much home automation beyond turning on and off a few lights and opening the garage doors which just needs simple lights/switchable tags. I occasionally use them to control the Nest, but I use the native integration between Nest and Google for that. What I do use them for I am very happy with them. In order of how much we use…
Broadcasts to send messages to my family remotely or on other floors of the house. My six year old really loves this feature.
Showing family pictures. It automatically pics the “good” pictures we take on our phones so the pictures are always up to date. It’s nice to come home and see pictures from the outing we were just on showing on the Hubs.
Cookbook in the kitchen. The Hub has a cookbook so you can search for a recipe on it, find one you like, and add it to your cookbook. It will read out the ingredients and steps one by one hands free which is handy when you are cooking. I’m still waiting for the ability to add my own recipes, though it has been promised.
The Hubs, speakers of any size, and Chromecasts can be grouped and play audio simultaneously which is great for filling a given floor or the whole house with music or other audio content. Recently, they added the ability to link two speakers to play in stereo. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a bunch of Sonos.
Seeing who is at the front door. We have a Nest Hello (purchased before the whole Works with Nest crap.
Playing YouTube videos. This is mainly something my son does (he doesn’t have his own device). There are parental controls which makes this reasonably safe, but the hub is also in a public area of the house so we always know what he’s watching. We also get a notification on our phone telling us that something is playing on the Hubs so he can’t sneak a watch without our knowing about it. I only wish it would tell us what is playing, not just the fact that something is playing. We can kill what is playing remotely though.
Asking questions and getting pretty good answers back.
Curated news report in the morning. This used to be pretty static but they are rolling out a more dynamic feed based on your interests, for better or worse.
NOTE: I say I can do all these things remotely, but it just occurred to me that I have my phone always connected to my home network through VPN, so despite it being on a separate subnet, it may appear as local to Google.
Based on my experiences with Amazon Fire tablets, I cannot imagine I would be as satisfied with an Alexa as I am with Google. I’m not saying Alexa can’t do all of this, it may do it even better. But I’d be surprised based on my experience with other Amazon stuff. But, like I said, I don’t really do much of any home automation with them.
It does have that feature but it’s annoying too say broadcast everytime you want too respond alexa is more like a real intercom and you can just talk back and thourth until you are finished no need for saying broadcast
I think it does support this broadcast too bedroom speaker
Me neither I use them too trigger openhab routines and a few lights when it’s more convenient
I also have my phone connected too a vpn this is something I learned how too do more recently and I love it allows me too to do all my computer tasks remotely
I have ordered an echo will give it a try and upload my opinion
Hmm. On mine it asks “do you want to respond?” And we just say yes and respond.
Mine definitely doesn’t say that it just goes off and then you have too say broadcast again I wish it said that it would be more simple