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Smart Speaker Owners Aren't Yet Widely Using Them to Control Connected Home Devices
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We stopped asking questions long ago. Welcome to the Digital Dark Age.
Why spend hundreds of dollars to “smartify” my home when the regular way works perfectly well?
What the...
It is amazing how much you seemingly take for granted. Look around you at all the things technology provides these days. Yeah, what a disaster... If only we had robot slaves...
Have had a semi automated house for a number of years (principally z-wave), what people don't get is how expensive it is to do it and to do it well, the investment is large - $5k-$10k from my viewpoint. Which doesn't bode well for something that's seen as a bit of a novelty...
I typically don't have my phone or tablet with me when I'm home. Different people, different use cases. The Echo Dots work great for me.
I just started configuring a Harmony Hub so when I say "Alexa, turn on movie night" about 40 lights change settings, the whole home audio switches inputs and settings and the Apple TV wakes up. Unfortunately my new receiver has pass through HDMI that keeps my projector powered up. I'll probably have to run an IR blaster to it so I can control it from the Harmony Hub. Everyday the system grows a little. So far my toaster hasn't tried to murder me in my sleep but I have my eye on it.
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I have several scenes setup. "Movie night" sets the hue lamps to various colors and intensities while "Gallery" tends to be more white light. My track lights that focus on my photography have both cool white and warm white LEDs so I set them in the middle so both LEDs are working which gives better color rendering.
If you set one scene for white and one (or more) for color you should be good to go. "Alexa, turn on white lights." "Alexa, turn on funky lights." I've not been able to send specific color commands to Hue. For example, "Alexa, set kitchen center to blue" does not work.
At least Amazon is making active improvements in this area. For many of my commands I am no longer forced to listen to "OK" or any other inane response. If I ask for the lights to be turned off, then the lights going dark works just fine as a confirmation. If not... anything else that Alexa tells me - other than "I'm having trouble communicating right now" - will just increase my annoyance level.
I use Amazon a LOT and Siri to a lesser extent.
The one thing that would flip this would be for Siri to gain the ability to control Logitech Harmony in the same way that Alexa does. "Alexa, turn on Apple TV" turns on the TV, the Apple TV, the soundbar, and sets the appropriate inputs. Then it sets the remote to control Apple TV, except for volume, which controls the soundbar. I can similarly control the DVD player.
I can use either device to control the lights and a couple of smart plugs. This ONE feature is the difference between my usage.
I tend to use Siri to set appointments, reminders, and ask for directions.
The one thing that would flip this would be for Siri to gain the ability to control Logitech Harmony in the same way that Alexa does. "Alexa, turn on Apple TV" turns on the TV, the Apple TV, the soundbar, and sets the appropriate inputs. Then it sets the remote to control Apple TV, except for volume, which controls the soundbar. I can similarly control the DVD player.
I can use either device to control the lights and a couple of smart plugs. This ONE feature is the difference between my usage.
I tend to use Siri to set appointments, reminders, and ask for directions.
It's the price that counts. Most people who buy these know they are not gonna use them much, so they are ok spending $80 on Alexa, definitely not $300+ on the dumbest assistant ever
Apple came to the market late, with a product so expensive with little advantage (and many disadvantages). Is that how we define a hit nowadays?
And yet somewhat ironically I can use my AppleTV to turn my Panasonic TV on and off. Huh.
Using my Pod for my Home controls - always! Don't remember last time I touch wall switch or my EcoBee thermostat controls. Once in a while Siri complains - "Some devices do not want to cooperate" - but after 1-2 second delay everything goes through.....
I've an Echo Plus exactly for that reason. A bunch of IKEA lamps and Osram Smart+ Zigbee power socket switches (afaik the only really reliable ones) allow control of most lights for a total price less than a HomePod. If, one day, I don't trust Amazon anymore (I'm quite certain that day will come as AI evolves) I can ditch the Echo for a local zigbee controlled system. As a bonus, the Echo is also good for streaming Spotify (allthough, when I prefer sound quality I rather Airplay to my HiFi system conected an AudioCast. The latter costs 30 bucks, also natively supports Spotify).
I can only recommend everyone to not lock themselves into Alexa, HomeKit or other propreitary solutions. Stick with standards (Zigbee, Z-wave,...) wherever possible, or at least make sure the product supports not only your currently used propreitary solution, so you could move on later. Also stay away from "WiFi-connected" devices. They have high power consumptions (typically) and are a security nightmare. Anything that's connected over IP (All WiFi, Ethernet devices) can potentially be hacked over network or even spy on you as it can connect to the internet (unless you block it in your firewall -which I would highly recommend for such devices).
I can only recommend everyone to not lock themselves into Alexa, HomeKit or other propreitary solutions. Stick with standards (Zigbee, Z-wave,...) wherever possible, or at least make sure the product supports not only your currently used propreitary solution, so you could move on later. Also stay away from "WiFi-connected" devices. They have high power consumptions (typically) and are a security nightmare. Anything that's connected over IP (All WiFi, Ethernet devices) can potentially be hacked over network or even spy on you as it can connect to the internet (unless you block it in your firewall -which I would highly recommend for such devices).
This is almost exclusively what I use my Echos for around the house. Lights, TV, thermostat, tell me my schedule, what's the weather, that's about it. As my entire house is only Philips Hue (yeah, that was cheap) it only seems to make sense. Oh, lock the doors too.
I suspect the issue here is just that many more people have smart speakers than have controllable home devices.
I can't see having both and simply not using your smart speaker to control your smart devices.
I have two Google Homes (livingroom-kitchen / theater-basement) and my fiancé and I use them (in addition to Siri) all day long to control all aspects of our house (lights, garage door, thermostat, door locks).
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I agree about not locking yourself in. Every device I own is both Homekit and Google Home compatible... but I completely disagree about wifi.
In my experience wifi connected smart home stuff is WAY more reliable. Especially if it has a hub. Especially if that hub is hardwired (ethernet) to my router. Bluetooth is junk in the home - constantly losing connection.
Things I have that use wifi that are rock solid:
1. Hue Lights
2. Casetta Lights
3. Liftmaster MyQ Garage Door System
4. Ecobee3
5. August Smart Lock Pro + Connect
I personally don't see the security thing either. No one can get on my wifi network locally... so the only attack vector would be to compromise one of the cloud services that runs these devices. In this town most people don't even lock their doors... the idea that someone is going to hack August or Liftmaster to gain access to my house is pretty laughable.
I can't see having both and simply not using your smart speaker to control your smart devices.
I have two Google Homes (livingroom-kitchen / theater-basement) and my fiancé and I use them (in addition to Siri) all day long to control all aspects of our house (lights, garage door, thermostat, door locks).
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I agree about not locking yourself in. Every device I own is both Homekit and Google Home compatible... but I completely disagree about wifi.
In my experience wifi connected smart home stuff is WAY more reliable. Especially if it has a hub. Especially if that hub is hardwired (ethernet) to my router. Bluetooth is junk in the home - constantly losing connection.
Things I have that use wifi that are rock solid:
1. Hue Lights
2. Casetta Lights
3. Liftmaster MyQ Garage Door System
4. Ecobee3
5. August Smart Lock Pro + Connect
I personally don't see the security thing either. No one can get on my wifi network locally... so the only attack vector would be to compromise one of the cloud services that runs these devices. In this town most people don't even lock their doors... the idea that someone is going to hack August or Liftmaster to gain access to my house is pretty laughable.
X10 was my first foray into home automation!
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Your choice and your simple needs (or lack of imagination). I love the automation I’ve put in. My 3 outside lights go on at sunset and off at sunrise to make my house more secure. My thermostat turns off when I leave the patio door open so I’m not air conditioning the neighborhood and back on when I close the door. When I want to watch a movie on my projector, one phrase turns my livingroom into my home theater. A second phrase puts all that away and gets me ready to go to bed and turns off the vampire power that costs me money and wastes energy. I love coming up with new ways to make my home more convenient and energy efficient. My fire cube is showing up tomorrow and I’ll be able to use voice commands to change channels on my PlayStation Vue tv service instead of fumbling with the Apple TV remote (no PSVue channel voice control another Apple failure, sadly) and hitting keys multiple times to get to the channel guide and scrolling scrolling scrolling thru the list to get to the channel I want.
Yes but I have functioning hands and feet. I can walk to my heater and turn it up when its cold. I can walk and turn on the AC when it's hot. I can flick a switch and turn on an outside light when I see it's dark.
I saved $1,000 and have an imagination and am not contributing any e-waste which negates your power savings.
Lol. Well I have pen, paper and stamps but I prefer to use email.
I’ll use the electricity my solar panels produce as I see fit. And enjoy the payment I receive for the excess I sell to the electric company. My time is worth something to me but I’m glad you’re getting some exercise. You make it sound like you live in a cabin when you talk like you don’t even own a programmable thermostat.
Btw. I didn’t spend $1,000 for all that.
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Lol. I put my toaster oven on a smart switch so I can tell it to start warming up from the living room so it’s hot when I want to reheat some leftovers for dinner. It hasn’t killed me yet!
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I just purchased a HomePod, for music, and love it. I here people complain about the price, but if you compare it to similar speakers it's about the same. And it's a smart speaker. I hear a lot about Siri, but I've has zero issues with Siri recognizing me, it's answered every question, and it turns my devices on and off without a problem. Maybe I'm just fortunate.
I guess it depends on what you consider a “semi-automated” house. All the lights in my house in California and my Parents’ house are controllable. Both places have HomeKit connected thermostats, garage door openers and controllable sprinklers. In California, I also have ceiling fans, HomeKit locks and electronic air filters. My AV systems are also controllable, but I did not pay any extra for that functionality (not counting my smart speakers). I have both HomeAssistant and HomeKit automation using AppleTV boxes.
I did not even spend $2,500 (including the smart speakers) for either location. My system is mostly Insteon, but even using Leviton HomeKit switches, I couldn’t get to $3,000. I am curious what you are doing that gets you to $5,000-$10,000?
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