Google Home or Amazon Echo?

[Craig234]

Right now, I am using a Wink Hub, but I am thinking about upgrading to Smart Things for the Action Tiles interface:

Hm don't know what those are or what they do, and I checked the web site.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Tell you what- got a Philips Hue color set for Christmas, and it's a life-changer with Alexa. Voice controlled color lights in every room sounds weird at first, but then you wonder how you lived without it. Scenes, music sensitivity, moods...very cool tech!

Wow. I had no idea this existed. Thanks for the heads up.

Here it is controlled with Google Home...

 

[deadlyapp]

I am a big fan of the Alexa VUI system. The voice recognition is stellar. I currently have 3 types of units:

1. Amazon Echo (living room - integrated speaker; note - the 2nd-gen Echo has bad reviews on the speaker)
2. 10" Fire HD tablet (kitchen - the 10" HD is the only model that offers hands-free Alexa, super useful when your hands are messy from cooking)
3. Echo Dot (in every other room - luckily snagged them on that Whole Foods mega-sale for cheap; also including bathrooms, which are wirelessly connected to Bluetooth speaker/nightlight/exhaust fan combos)

Right now, I am using a Wink Hub, but I am thinking about upgrading to Smart Things for the Action Tiles interface:

https://www.actiontiles.com

Yeah - I thankfully wasn't invested in anything else and did some research and decided on SmartThings from the beginning. Admittedly, a lot of the other hubs have good support, but the online community for SmartThings is fantastic and the out of the box ability of the hub is pretty good, with significantly more granularity than Alexa routines, IFTTT, etc. I've looked into actiontiles and may get it at some point, but my plan for my smart home is to have it actually "smart" and therefore everything is automatic, or voice activated. My alarm on smart things activates and deactivates based on presence, my patio lights activate based on time of day & contact sensor, my living room lights are voice controlled, etc etc and I've only dipped my feet in a tiny bit. I'll probably add a raspberry pi control server at some point so I can have additional smart things functionality through non-zigbee and Z-wave devices, but I need to brush up on my coding first.

Edit: I have one echo plus, two echo dots, one fire 10, and one fire 7. My fire 7 controls all my smart home devices and I was able to workaround the standard OS to get smart things onto it after some help from SmartThings support. Echo plus controls two hue bulbs by voice, and then interfaces with my SmartThings hub for other control. SmartThings hub controls security (contact and motion sensors) and then interfaces with TP-plus (Kasa) controlled devices through the cloud for some additional lighting. I also have Harmony hub which interfaces with Echo and can be used to voice control my entire entertainment center, and the Fire 7 serves as a physical remote as necessary.

 

[deadlyapp]

Hm don't know what those are or what they do, and I checked the web site.

Wink is a smart home hub, similar to Samsung SmartThings, Homekit, etc. Smart home hubs interface between your network and zigbee / z-wave devices. For some devices, additional "bridges" are required, such as the hue bulbs (which can be ran on their own without a bridge, but is recommended to use bridge), the harmony remotes, etc.

ActionTiles is a web interface that allows for easy visual control of the above. You configure "tiles" that tell you status, give you control, etc. It's not necessary as all the hubs have their own software, but some people prefer a web interface vs app.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Google Home, Mini and just got the Home Max(which kicks butt).

Also two Nest thermostats(hate there is no hold feature but have requested it)

Samsung Smartthings hub and a bunch of sensors that I haven't installed yet. Some Senegal(?) smart bulbs and Geeksomething smart outlets which I haven't installed either.

 

[Kaido]

Wow. I had no idea this existed. Thanks for the heads up.

Not only that, but their latest-generation bulbs apparently also do temperature shifting (2200K to 6500K), so you're not stuck with just "bright white" or "warm white" anymore (I believe they have a white-only temperature-shift bulb as well as a color + temperature-shift bulb available). Pretty crazy stuff...

 

[Crono]

I use Cortana (Harman Kardon Invoke). No, it doesn't have as many skills, but it works well enough as a speaker, kitchen timer, Hue controller, and for lists and reminders, which is what I wanted to begin with. Going for a full IoT setup is too expensive and everything still is poorly integrated with questionable security and update policies, but I suspect at some point I'll go down that route.

I do like the look of the GLAS thermostat w/Cortana integration. I may get that when pre-orders open up.

 

[FelixDeCat]

My Echo Dot arrived today. After four years...it was time! Sirius offered them for $9.99, so I finally gave in. So far, so good!

 

[shortylickens]

I see FelixDeCat has a new avatar.

 

[Muadib]

I see FelixDeCat has a new avatar.

I like it!