Posted by Before you start turning your home into smart home, you must first set up the ecosystem that will power all your dream devices. For smart home products and devices, Google’s Nest Mini is the most economical option to count on. Alternatively, you can use your smartphone as well. In this article, we explore the different smart home ecosystem options at length.
Why this discussion?
Before you start shopping for smart home products, you must have decided on the ecosystem that will work the best for you. The three main types of smart home ecosystems are Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit.
If you have a number of gadgets like iPhones, iPads, and Macs, Apple Home Kit is the best choice. However, if you have an Android phone, you may prefer to work with Google’s Home platform. While most third party systems can support different standards, things can run smoothly when you choose the right ecosystem.
Google Home
One of the main strengths of Nest ecosystem is the voice assistant called Google Assistant. This can quickly respond to voice commands. It is an expert in conversational styled interaction. It can easily understand complicated commands and requests that may confound Siri or Alexa. In an Android device, you will find Google Assistant baked in. Google Home app provides quick access to smart home shortcuts.
Amazon Alexa
Amazon Alexa has made a head start in the smart home arena and boasts of a wide range of products compatible with it. Though it might not provide accurate answers as Google Assistant, Alexa can surely support a broad range of skills, a plethora of smartphone apps developed by third parties for instance. It has got affordable displays and speakers, especially the ones you can hope to get in mega sales events like Prime Day. To be able to control Alexa via your home, you must first install the Alexa app, which must be open before issuing any voice command.
Apple HomeKit
The most restrictive of the three, Apple Home Kit is the best option iPhone owners can bank on. Since Apple has a tight control over third party certifications, we can expect the supported devices to work smoothly on it. Alexa and Google Assistant have more number of supported devices than HomeKit. Nevertheless, it covers the major smart home brands. You will find Apple’s Home app easy to use as well as elegant. It is easy to set up devices on it. It provides the most secure platform you can highly depend on. By default Apple collects less data and whenever possible, data is kept on the device. You will need to invest in a HomeKit hub device if you want to control devices when you are away from home. Some of these options include a HomePod Mini, Apple TV, or iPad. Siri is known to be the weakest among the three voice assistants we are talking about. However, it is certainly getting better.
Take away
When you are in a fix to choose the right smart home products ecosystem for your home, you must consider the three options discussed above and make an informed decision to get the best out of your smart home set up.