Modern day life is hectic—to say the least. Between managing your social life, work responsibilities, personal/family life, and various social media accounts, anything to help simplify your day to day life is welcomed with open arms by the average Joe. Recent technological advances made by both Amazon and Google have made way for this simplification. Amazon’s Echo persona, “Alexa”, and Google home’s persona, “Google Assistant”, can provide users with information and content in the bat of an eye. These voice activated speakers offer many of the same features but are also unique to their own brand. So if you’re going to invest in one of these products, first decide which the right fit is for you.
Let’s start with the basics, interacting with your device. When it comes to Alexa, you’ll need to be a bit more specific with what you ask her. She’s not able to remember what you are talking about, so users have to remind her the context of a question every time they make an encounter with her. With Google home, you are able to be more fluid with what you ask and can carry a conversation with it. The pro of Alexa’s style of speaking, is that once you start to understand her syntax, you are better able to obtain more specific information—especially from third party sites. Google Assistant’s pro is that the interaction of voice activation is less formal and more similar to casual day-to-day conversation—you basically don’t have to think twice about whether your device will understand your question or not. The more profound use of both Alexa and Google Assistant, is of course, music. When it comes to speaker quality, Google Home automatically wins, but Alexa’s 3.5mm auxiliary output jack allows to easily add a third-party speaker. Alexa is also able to play volume at a higher level than the Home. The content of music that can be reached by these products is more exclusive to each device’s brand. Both devices have access to Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio, but Amazon’s Alexa has avenue to Amazon Music—a music streaming service that catalogs 29,100,000+ tracks (make note that an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription is not included with the purchase of an Amazon Alexa). The Google Home offers both Google Play Music and YouTube RED. The Home also allows you to upload your own music to its Cloud, something Amazon’s Alexa does not yield. The skills Alexa and the Home deliver are more different than the same. They both can do the same basic skills of setting timers, telling time, switching between accounts, finding recipes, etc. When testing Wi-Fi connectivity strength between the two devices, Alexa reached more places in the home than the Google Home could. Google Home has more than 1,800 third-party connections, allowing you to order pizza or a Lyft just by asking while Amazon’s Alexa has more than 24,000. Alexa’s capabilities are more environmentally confined—she is very good at giving local sports stats, bus schedules, etc.
The Amazon Echo and Google Home are available in a few different styles. Amazon currently has more styles available to obtain Alexa. There is the smaller version, Amazon’s Echo Dot, equated to Google’s Home Mini, and the larger version, the Echo, equated to Google Home. Now, which is better? – That’s for you to decide.
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