The sci-fi vision of a connected home is quickly becoming a reality: both Amazon and Google have launched smart assistants, with an Apple offering based on the company’s HomeKit system is rumoured to be on the way.
These products are designed to act as standalone hubs for your digital life. Voice activation systems allow users to ask questions, perform tasks control their IoT appliances, without even having to touch their phones.
We look at how the three major smart assistant products compare to each other, based on the information we’ve currently got. We’ll be updating this article as and when we know more so please stay tuned…
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28/02/2017: Amazon is reportedly working on adding a much-requested feature to its Alexa AI – the ability to distinguish between different voices.
An anonymous source told Time that the technology – which has been under development since at least 2015 – has now been completed, and just needs to be integrated into the Alexa platform. However, this could end up being delayed by regulatory or privacy concerns.
The feature would match the user’s voice to a stored sample, allowing it to identify members of the household via their unique ‘voice print’. A primary use for this would be to restrict the ability to make purchases to certain authorised users, but it could also be used for dynamically switching between user accounts for services like Spotify or Google Calendar.
Operating system
The Amazon Echo is powered by Alexa, an AI core built on AWS’ cloud infrastructure. It’s essentially a voice-operated digital assistant, but thanks to machine learning algorithms, it’s designed to get smarter the more you use it, adapting to your vocabulary, speech patterns, and usage habits.
Google Now has been part of the company’s ecosystem for a while now, but it’s now been upgraded to become the Google assistant. Like Google Now, it works across the whole Google portfolio, including Android, ChromeOS and the new Google Home. It’s designed to respond in a natural, conversational manner to voice queries, and is also powered by cloud-based AI technology.
Apple was the first major company to introduce a digital assistant into its devices, with the launch of Siri. iPhone users can interact with their apps through Siri, and as of recent software upgrades, can also use Siri voice commands to control their Apple TV. This is what is rumoured to be underpinning Apple’s smart assistant product.
At the moment, Google Now is the most useful of the current crop, with a wide range of commands, tasks and integrations with various services. However, the sheer scale of AWS’ compute power means that the potential for Alexa to adapt to users’ habits and increase its skillset means it could be a more promising option in the long run.
Design
The Amazon Echo is designed primarily as a connected speaker, and that’s what it looks like – a smooth black cylinder, with a speaker grille around the lower half. Accented by a snazzy ring of blue light around the top, the Echo looks sleek and professional, and would be at home in either an office or a bedroom.
The company also offers the Echo Dot, a smaller and more affordable version, lacking the inbuilt speaker seen in the full-size Echo. This is similarly small and unobtrusive and looks like what you’d get if somebody pulled off the top two inches of the Echo.
Google Home, as the name would suggest, appears much more domestic in its appeal. It’s shorter and fatter, with a rounded base and a slanted top. The base will be available in different colours and materials, so you’ll be able to customise it depending on your interior decorating tastes.
In its current incarnation, Apple’s HomeKit system is software only. However, rumours have indicated that at some point, Apple will be unveiling a dedicated hardware unit in the style of Amazon Echo and Google Home.
What form this hardware will take, if it exists at all, is still unknown. However, given Apple’s design pedigree, we’d expect it to knock both its competitors into a cocked hat from a purely visual standpoint.
