Consumer Reports: Digital assistant: Google Home or Amazon Alexa?

CONSUMER REPORTS — You may have seen ads for those home assistant speakers from Amazon and now Google. Experts at Consumer Reports explain how this technology shows a lot of promise.

There’s an endless number of things you can ask a home assistant speaker. They can search the web to try to answer all of your questions and even control certain internet-connected devices in your home. Consumer Reports’ electronics editors compared the $130 Google Home with the $180 Amazon Echo.

The electronics’ editor’s first impression is that the Google Home speaker is a lot smarter. For instance, if you say, “Okay, Google, when’s it going to rain again?”, it will answer. With the Amazon Echo, the answer will sound more like a weather report. But Consumer Reports says the Echo actually does more — like dim the lights and turn on the TV. Right now, the Google Home doesn’t work with as many home-automation systems as the Echo.

Consumer Reports also found the Home sometimes gets confused between a playlist, album, or title of a song, something the Echo also has problems with.

The Google Home is expected to get more features, like being able to send directions right to your smart-phone.