Alexa AND Google Assistant

With lots of pros and cons for both platforms (Alexa skills, Google tighter integration with many things I do vs. Alexa dumb voice recognition, Google graveyard) - who else decided to leave with both beasts in their house? How's your life so far? What have you learned that might help someone else making a choice to choose not either / or but both?

I have (12) Alexa devices and (1) Google Assistant. I like the Alexa skills integration with Hubitat better. I only have the Google Assistant to keep track of its improving capabilities- and because it was free :wink:. I rarely use it. There has been no issues with having both.

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Well, I like Alexa for more integrations - that's for sure. But gosh is it dumb at NLP... You gotta say exactly what it expects AND any ESL will get you screwed.... Literally,

Me: Alexa, open office blinds.
Alexa: Okay, closing office blinds.

I like Echo design, especially those orbs with clocks. Surprisingly Alexa routines are much more intuitive and easier to put together than Google.

Google is definitely huge when I need to integrate with anything I do with Tasker. AND GA is much better on the phone when I don't have to unlock the phone or open the app. Alexa is annoying there. Also with Google Auto, it only integrates with GA, so I need GA support on while on the road.

I left Google when they lost the Sonos lawsuit. I then went with Alexa for a bit and left that when the whole tts thing went away. (Yes I know about the alternative) I ended up with HomePods and home pod minis and they sound better, they do multi room music better than Google or echo. Tts is coming later in the year hopefully and each one is a HomeKit hub which integrates with Hubitat. Works out well.

Umm I am quite leery of letting anything from the bitten-fruit empire in my house :smiley:

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The HD+ dashboard can now integrate with Tasker.

I use Alexa but have been trying to ween myself. I also run Home Assistant and am patiently waiting for their voice Assistant to be prime time ready.

100% local and they don't collect data... They are certainly more privacy oriented than either Google or Amazon. Apple is more about selling hardware than information.

have you tried the Alexa voice training through the app on your phone? i used to be frustrated with Alexa until i did that voice training and it's been solid for me since then

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I am heavily invested in the Amazon Alexa infrastructure with a couple of Echo Show 15s, three Echo Show 10s, two Echo show 8s and two Echo Show 5s, an old Gen 1 Echo for the unfinished basement and an Amazon Fire Cube with Alexa. Even my Ecobee thermostat has Alexa built in. I also have one recent generation of Google Nest Audio.

I use Alexa for voice command and control. Nearly everything is controlled by Hubitat, but I have a couple of Hunter SimpleConnect fans that can be controlled by Alexa, but not by Hubitat.

I purchased the Google Nest Audio device with the hope of using it once Echo Speaks got more complex with the need to run your own cookie server. I set it up to work with the Laundry Manager app to announce when the washer and dryer were done. Initially, everything worked, but it stopped working and I have not bothered to figure out what happened.

The Amazon Alexa integration works quite well with Echo devices. I have not tried exploring the possibilities of Google Assistant. When Google Assistant and Amazon Echo devices were first released years ago, I purchased one of each, but Alexa seemed to fit my needs better. You might find Google Nest to be a better fit for you.

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I prefer Alexa because Node Red has a pallet that allows for extra functionally like room-aware commands.

Yeah, I am yet to succeed in connecting either of those since my home network is dead firewalled with pfsense and I am not punching any holes in it for no assistant :slight_smile:

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I have... Right after that I had this wonderful exchange with it,

Me: Alexa, close office blinds.
A: Ok, opening office blinds.

Bravo! That is how it should be. My router runs adguard and the various Amazon devices call home thousands of times a day. Many are blocked but I havent had the time to see if I could block the rest. Everytime I think about it I get more and more pissed at the big tech companies. Really need to cut Amazon out of my life.

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