Have my house up with ring doorbell/ alarm, 2 dots and a v1 echo. Also in the Amazon prime/fire tv/Kindle fire camp. I’m pretty invested in Amazon at this point, still new/lightly invested in my home auto compared to many here. Smartthings v2 user, but I’m still only around 15 devices right now. Next step would be a show, but I think the price is a bit high.
Then, while at Target I see their beautiful google home display with 2 mini home and home hub deal for $100 deal, pick one up. Shiny, blinky things got me. I’ve been a Google Chromecast/pixel user in the past. Many new TV’s and home receivers I’m looking at seem to have Google/Chromecast built in.
Anyone successfully using both google and Amazon devices in their home? Use cases?
Trying to convince myself to keep the Google stuff, but thinking a sell may make more sense than 2 ecosystems.
All this going through my head in the calm before the storm today, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all!
Quite a few community members use both, usually because, as you mentioned, they either have Chromecast or they have an android phone and like that integration.
It’s really just up to you if you have a use for both. Some people prefer one, some people prefer the other, some just stick with what they bought first, and some use both.
At our house we mostly use echoes and have about 14 of them of varying kinds. But we have one google home mini that One household member uses in his room because he has an android phone and he likes the integration with his calendar.
Good question, and something I’m wrestling with myself. Was using Google phones, Google Fi phone service, Google Assistant, and all sorts of other Google services (gmail, calendar, YT music, photos, drive, etc) long before getting into HA. Was gifted an Echo about the same time I started with HA, and of course integrated it right away. As I was getting started I considered switching to Google Home products, but at the time Alexa had much better integration, and was much more affordable. Now we’re pretty committed to the Alexa ecosystem in the house with one Echo, 3 Echo Dots, 3 Echo Spots, and 3 Kindle FIre tablets. But I still use Google Assistant in the car, at work, and pretty much everywhere except home. I occasionally catch myself using “Alexa” instead of “OK Google” in the car and at work, and visa versa at home. Would be nice to stay in a single ecosystem, but if I switched to either one exclusively there would be things I’d miss sorely.
I have all google homes in my house and just recently got an Echo. I’m on a mission to find a way to have google run alexa skills. I’m 80% of the way there, just need to figure out how to run a skill on Alexa either from the command. There is a piece i’m missing but I think I’ll figure it out by the end of the year.
Either that or I’m going to get a final Google Home, and combine it with an Amazon Alexa in a small sound proof box and have them “talk” to each other. All I want to be able to do is have Google start my car without using tasker or any kind of middle ware. Right now I can ask Alexa to Ask Fordpass to start my car and it can. I’ll post here when I figure out what I am going to do. I have until the new year off so I got some time to burn
I envy your passion and commitment, and you have a true use case you’re working towards. I don’t have the use case right now, except a very cheap smart home display sitting right now in a box, that wouldn’t tie directly to what we mostly use Alexa for, which is shopper lists, start audio timers, Amazon music, some podcasts, turn on off lights.
WAF is a big key to anything I put in, our 24.20 fw debacle couldn’t have happened at a worse time for her with the holidays. Putting Amazon and google in the kitchen may cause some user/acceptance problems.
Just my experience, so take it for what it’s worth.
I find that Google Assistant does a much better job of doing what I actually want, particularly with searches and things other than home automation commands. It can open apps and perform tasks on my phone much better than Alexa can, though part of that may be due to my using a Google phone. The integration with Google Calendar and Gmail is also much better, and I use them both frequently for both work and personal use. I listen to a lot of more obscure music, which I can only find on YouTube Music. None of the music services that link with Alexa can compete for me, but I realize that I’m unique in that respect. For most people, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc. have all the music they could ever want.
Alexa has better integration with a lot of home automation devices/platforms than Google in my experience, and seems to have integration with more things overall. Google is getting better all the time, but Alexa is too, and seems to be keeping just ahead of Google at every step. As an example, Harmony integration with Google was really clumsy until a few months ago, and still isn’t as nice as Alexa IMO. It also seems like the Echo devices do much better at hearing commands correctly, particularly in a noisy room, compared to the Google Home Mini’s. I don’t have any experience with the Home Hub, so mot sure if it’s any better. My wife and 3 young kids are all very accustomed to telling Alexa what to do at this point, and changing that to “Hey Google” or “OK Google” could be a challenge not to be underestimated.
I have both but mostly Google Home/Hub/Mini’s. The integration with SmartThings is fine and has been reliable for me. The only place I’ve run into cross-ecosystem incompatibilities has been around cameras + screens to watch them on. I can’t view my Ring doorbell on my SmartDisplay but can view my Nests. If you’re heavily invested in Ring or plan to be (they just released a slew of new products at CES), you might want to keep a Show around to view them on. Other than that, I really can’t tell much of a difference between using one or the other.
Music is a good example. We use Amazon music. If we have both google and amazon, I’d likely want to switch to a cross platform service. When I first started using echo, false positives in Spotify were much higher than Amazon music. Same decisions with Chromecast, fire TV, Roku, etc. Then apple home is starting to push the privacy angle, and per ces going to be embedded in Samsung TVs (not sure how this affects Smartthings path).
I’m really trying to justify that $100 hub, (2) mini deal… Not that anyone in this forum buys what they don’t need.
I received my ($50) Show 5 today. While I am a Ring and multiple Echo/Dot user, after using the Show 5 for a few hours I believe I like the Google Hub as a small smart screen more. The Show 5 seems too ‘salesy’ to me compared to the home hub.
Maybe it will grow more on me. Time will tell. Not the first impressions I was hoping to have.
WAF with the home hub, show 5, echo v1, actiontiles tablet all within 12 ft in the current room has put my SH acceptace at an all time low…
