Automating your home has never been easier. Nowadays, you can control the functionalities of your smart devices anyhow you want. It can be via a mobile app, a smart speaker or a digital voice assistant.
Voice assistants have become increasingly popular among homeowners because of their ease of use and their interpersonal relationship.
Three digital voice assistants stand tall, namely Siri by Apple, Alexa by Amazon and Google Assistant by Google. So which is the best virtual assistant among the three?
This article will provide a detailed breakdown about the different categories in which either digital assistant prevails over the rest;
Best At Answering Questions (Google Assistant)
It’s no surprise that Google Assistant beats the other two virtual assistants when it comes to answering general questions. This is mainly attributed to the fact that Google Assistant has adequate experience answering questions people ask on its search engine.
However, Siri isn’t far off when it comes to answering general questions since it comes in a close second. Also, when it comes to responding to voice commands about other general tasks, Siri is far better.
For example, Siri is better at responding to voice commands about sending text messages, playing music and scheduling meetings than the two. Although Alexa isn’t so reliable about general questions, it shows far much improvement in answering questions from recent years.
Best For Communication (Siri)
In this category, all three digital voice assistants thrive in their own way. For example, Alexa lets its users answer and make calls to other Alexa users. On top of that, Alexa can also send text messages and audio recordings to other Alexa users.
Another great aspect about Alexa when it comes to communication is that it bears the Drop-In feature. With this feature, you can start a conversation with someone else who has an Echo smart speaker.
On the other hand, Google Assistant enables its users to make phone calls only. This means that it won’t enable its users to send any text messages or audio recordings without IFTTT. However, the best thing about Google Assistant is that you can use it to make international calls. This is if only you have a Google Voice account or Google Fi account.
Siri wins this category because it has the best communication features among the three. With Siri, you can make and receive calls, send text messages and audio recordings, and even send emails.
Siri can also read out your text messages without the need to reach out to your iPhone. The best thing about Siri is that it is the only voice assistant that enables users to make emergency calls.
Best at Playing Music (Google)
Amazon’s Alexa gives its users the freedom to play music from some of the biggest streaming platforms out there. With Alexa, you can play music from Amazon Music, Deezer Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Tidal, Apple Music, Pandora and SiriusXM.
Amazon Music enables users to play and playlists from different stations, but with ads. To avoid these ads, users have to upgrade to Amazon Unlimited, giving them access to over 60 million songs.
On the other hand, Google Assistant plays music from Pandora, Spotify, Deezer, and YouTube Music. YouTube Music gives users access to millions of songs, but they’ll have to listen to ads. If you don’t want to listen to any of these ads, you can always upgrade to YouTube Premium.
This will give you access to over 70 million songs. Also, YouTube Music lets users upload over 100,000 of their own audio files to the cloud service for free.
On the other hand, Siri can only play music from Apple Music which has over 70 million songs. However, users have to pay a subscription fee to listen to these songs. Aside from that, users can only play the available music in their Apple device’s library or the already purchased songs on iTunes.
Best For Smart Products Compatibility (Alexa)
Amazon Echo is the most popular smart speaker used all over the United States. Alexa is compatible with 140,000 smart devices, something that explains the popularity.
On the other hand, Google Assistant is compatible with about 50,000 smart devices.However, this list is bound to grow even more rapidly.
Siri is only compatible with 600 smart devices in the automation market.
Conclusion
Each one of the three digital voice assistants offers something unique to its users. However, to pick the best one for you, you’ll have to consider what’s more important to you in automation matters.