Voice Assistant Device
Complete Buyer’s Guide

Find out more about Voice Assistant features available, some of the products on the market today and what to look for when making a buying decision.

Voice Assistant Device Complete Buyer’s Guide

Who wouldn’t like a personal assistant working for their family and home 24/7? This assistant will never take a day off and will handle a multitude of important daily tasks and functions. Modern digital technology puts such a resource within easy reach in the form of a digital voice assistant interacting with your smart home and household.

Voice assistant systems, including those from Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, will follow voice commands to adjust the thermostat, lock and unlock doors connected to your home security system, make phone calls, relay news that’s important to you— even entertain the kids. A custom-programmable voice assistant device can do all of this and much more.

Read on to find out more about features available, some of the products on the market today and what to look for when making a buying decision.

What a Voice Assistant Device Can Do

A voice assistant system connects wirelessly to smart home devices through an existing Wi-Fi network. This artificial intelligence technology can be controlled through simple voice commands. Change a home’s ambiance by adding or changing music or lighting. Control door locks, room temperature and garage door openers. Users can set alerts for waking up in the morning and undertaking other routine household functions.

You can also use your voice assistant device to get real-time updates on the weather, news, traffic, sports scores or whatever is important to you. Use it to schedule ridesharing services and food deliveries and to compile shopping or errand lists and make reminders as soon as the thought occurs. Your voice assistant device can even entertain your kids by offering up games, telling stories or sharing trivia.

Set up your device in the kitchen, bedrooms, home office, front door – anywhere and everywhere you and your family would value voice command assistance.

What Features Are Important to You?

If you think your family would benefit from such state-of-the-art convenience, the next step is to shop around. Compare features and find the voice assistant device that will do what you want it to do at an affordable price point. Here are some of the factors you might consider.

Sophistication of Control Capabilities – The more you spend, the more your device should be able to do. Makes sense, right? While most voice assistant devices can control your smart home products via Wi-Fi, higher-end systems can provide a unified control hub to seamlessly tie together multiple brands in smart devices and integrate them into a single platform.
Display Options –A speaker-only voice assistant device that features simple voice command functionality is sufficient in many locations within your home. But in other spaces, some might prefer a device that also features a screen display. This could extend functionality to include such visual data as clock time, photo display, network camera views, video calling, YouTube® videos, weather updates and much more.
Sound and Speaker Quality – Sound clarity is important. If you plan to use the device to listen to music, more speakers (and improved bass response) might add to the enjoyment. You might get better sound with multiple speakers in larger and more expensive units. Some products use multiple microphones for enhanced clarity of commands. Also, consider the placement of voice assistant devices throughout the home. Make sure you don’t have any dead spots except where you don’t need voice assistance.

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Voice Technologies on the Market Today

One of the critical decisions you’ll have to make is which digital voice assistant technology you prefer. The two leading and perhaps most advanced voice assistant systems on the market today come from Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Amazon’s Echo products use highly popular Alexa technology. Google Nest products like Home Mini, Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max use Google Assistant. This platform has a smaller share of the market but currently offers more language capabilities. Each voice technology can provide several distinct capabilities.

Other voice technologies include Apple Siri with HomePod speakers and Samsung Bixby. They perform many of the same functions but don’t have the wide adoption and device capability as the market leaders.

There are also many manufacturers offering voice assistant devices that license and utilize Alexa and Google Assistant technologies. Some are basic units similar to an Echo or a Google Mini device. Others integrate voice technologies into such common household products as speakers, lights, television and even rings that can be worn on fingers.

Learn More

It’s an exciting time in smart home technology. Add a voice assistant system to that technology to get easy and accurate 24/7 assistance that will keep your home operating efficiently and your family safe and comfortable. All it takes is a few simple voice commands.

If you found this content useful and would like to learn more about the benefits and capabilities of a voice assistant device for your smart home, you’ll find other resources in the FirstEnergy Home Learning Library.

FirstEnergy Home’s review of this product is solely opinion. FirstEnergy Home did not receive compensation for the review. FirstEnergy Home, and any FirstEnergy affiliates, are not affiliated with the manufacturer of the product, nor is there any endorsement or sponsorship between the product manufacturer of the product and FirstEnergy Home or any of its affiliates.

Voice Assistant Device Complete Buyer’s Guide