And Apple has most definitely improved Siri’s capabilities over the last couple years, with handy features like and Intercom tool and routines that take advantage of the built-in temperature sensor in the HomePod and HomePod Mini. Technically, Siri and Apple’s HomeKit technology doesn’t work with as many smart home devices as the competition, but it’s not hard to find compatible gear. Siri has a reputation for not being as smart as Alexa or Google Assistant, but it’s totally capable of handling common voice queries like answering questions, controlling smart home devices, sending messages, making calls and playing music. But as a music assistant, Sonos Voice Control is generally quite fast and reliable.Īs for Apple, you won’t be surprised to learn the HomePod and HomePod mini are the only Siri-compatible speakers on the market. It's focused purely on music control, so you won't use it to do things like send messages or ask the weather forecast. If you buy a Sonos device with a microphone, you can also use the company's own voice assistant, voiced by Giancarlo Esposito. If you’ve never used Alexa or Google Assistant, you can download their apps to your smart phone and spend some time testing them out before buying a speaker. And it works with perhaps the widest variety of smart home devices, as well. But while Alexa isn’t quite as good at answering general knowledge questions, it syncs just fine with things like calendars from your Google account. If you already use Google Assistant on your Android phone, it makes sense to stick with that. It's mostly a matter of personal preference. A few years ago, Alexa worked with more smart home devices, but at this point, basically any smart device worth buying works with both. Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa are both well-supported options that are continually evolving, with new features added at a steady clip. The first thing most people should do is decide what voice assistant they want to use. Let’s walk through our choices for the best smart speakers at different price points and for different uses.
With the growing popularity of these speakers, there are now more options than ever. Even lower-end models like the Echo Dot and Nest Mini sound much better than earlier iterations.
Google and Amazon, meanwhile, made massive improvements in sound quality with recent speakers. Sonos released its own voice assistant in 2022 and also supports Alexa on its latest speakers. Sonos, on the other hand, made great sounding WiFi-connected speakers, but they lacked any voice-controlled smarts. For all their benefits, the original Amazon Echo and Google Home devices did not sound good.
The good news is that there's never been a better time to get a smart speaker, particularly if you're a music fan.
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