Hey, here are 3 great reasons to get a smart assistant this year

You‘ve likely considered adding voice assistants like Alexa or Siri into your home. Well 2023 is looking like an excellent year to finally pick one up!

As a veteran tech writer, I‘ve tested smart displays and speakers for years. I believe the time has come for these handy gadgets to claim their rightful place on kitchen counters and bedside tables across the country.

Today I‘ll be breaking down 3 compelling reasons why now is the perfect time to buy a smart assistant:

1. They make daily home life so much more convenient
2. Home security and peace of mind become effortless
3. Music and entertainment are completely seamless

I‘ll also compare top platforms like Amazon Echo vs Google Nest so you can decide which ecosystem is best for your needs. Let‘s get started!

Smart Assistants Make Home Life Way More Convenient

It‘s incredible how much easier juggling daily chores and routines becomes with a voice-controlled assistant. Through simple voice commands, you can now easily control smart light bulbs, thermostats, small kitchen appliances and more from wherever you are in your home.

I use my Nest Hub to turn lights on and off daily without getting up. I also quickly add items to my grocery list while cooking dinner, glance at the weather during breakfast, and set timers or check appointments while my hands are occupied with other tasks.

It‘s amazing how much time even small conveniences like these can save! I estimate I save at least 30-60 minutes per day just through my smart display‘s productivity features.

Smart assistants also offer peace of mind since you no longer have to worry if you left devices running before leaving the house. You can confirm the stove is off through an Echo Dot or lock your front door using a voice command to your HomePod on the way to work.

Some assistants can even proactively remind you of daily routines. I have my Echo device remind me to take out the trash each Monday night – no more forgetting!

Easy, Effective Home Security is Now Turnkey

While robust home security systems used to require professional installation, today‘s smart locks, cameras and alarms easily connect to platforms like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant for seamless control.

You can view live feeds from outdoor security cameras on Echo Shows and Nest Hubs. Ask Google to pull up the front door cam to see who is there without getting off the couch. Use Siri shortcuts to activate lighting when motion sensors trigger. And receive notifications anywhere when alarms detect broken glass or smoke while you‘re out running errands.

Going with a major smart assistant ecosystem means thousands of compatible security devices to choose from leading brands:

The ability to centralize control of all these devices through a smart display or speaker makes home security easier than ever before.

And mainstream options from Amazon and Google start at just $25 for the Alexa Echo Flex! Useful security tools like these integrating with AI assistants finally hit accessible price points in 2023.

Music & Media Become Seamless

While early smart speakers mainly focused on streaming music, today‘s smart displays can serve as handy kitchen TVs while also controlling your smart home.

Physical touchscreens on devices like the Amazon Echo Show 15 or Google Nest Hub Max allow watching videos, monitoring security cameras, cooking along to visual recipes, or joining video calls.

The Show 15 makes for an awesome digital picture frame in living spaces, displaying your album of family photos while providing weather updates, reminders, and more via Alexa voice responses.

The Nest Hub Max is perfect for following YouTube cooking tutorials hands-free in the kitchen. And given Google‘s plethora of entertainment content, the Hub Max also works great as a secondary TV for streaming shows in bedrooms or home offices.

The Google Nest Hub Max features a 10" HD touchscreen great for controlling smart home devices, following recipes, or streaming media via Chromecast.

Even without visual features, smart speakers like the $99 Apple HomePod Mini make listening to music a breeze. Just ask Siri to play a song, album, or even a certain music genre, and high quality audio begins streaming immediately from your preferred service.

And remember – no speaker sounds better for the size than the Apple HomePod Mini! Audiophiles will adore the sound fidelity coming from such compact, stylishly designed units.

Whether you want to primarily stream music, watch shows, make calls, or simply have quick access to information while multitasking around home, today‘s smart assistants finally offer the robust features and quality users deserve.

While smart speakers and displays come in dozens of shapes and sizes today, the most popular home assistant devices tend to share these core specs:

• Built-in voice assistant – The core smarts powered by Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri. Lets you operate devices, get answers, play media and more via voice commands.
• Speakers – Quality varies, but most feature good built-in speakers for streaming music and podcasts around your home. Some models focus more on premium, room-filling sound.
• Microphones – These allow the assistant to accurately hear requests from across a room. New models often add more mics and noise cancellation.
• Physical buttons – While voice is primary, having some physical buttons allows easy volume, mic mute, and playback controls.

Some units at the higher end also add:

• Touchscreens – Found on smart displays, these enable visually streaming media, video calling, controlling devices by touch.
• Camera – These allow video calls on supported smart displays. Cameras typically have shutters or toggle switches for privacy when not using.

When choosing your model, consider what features suit your needs. If you want to primarily listen to music or podcasts, a compact smart speaker like the Echo Dot may fully satisfy. Smart displays offer great visual additions for video and calling purposes.

Overall I err on the side of getting a display model since touchscreens prove so useful. But every home and user is different! Think about exactly how you anticipate using an assistant prior to any purchase.

Still trying to determine which platform‘s ecosystem of products is the best fit? Today there are really 3 major smart assistant software ecosystems found in popular home devices:

Amazon Alexa via Echo speakers/displays, Google Assistant powering Nest products, and Apple‘s Siri built into HomePod models.

While all three enable the basics like operating smart home devices, checking information, streaming media and calls, each platform brings varying strengths to consider:

Amazon‘s Alexa Ecosystem

As the first significantly successful option dating back to 2014, Amazon‘s Echo devices running Alexa really perfected smart speakers and displays while pioneering affordable pricing tiers:

• Prices start around just $50 for the 4th gen Echo Dot. Alexa is the most affordable major smart assistant platform.
• Alexa-enabled Echo products offer the widest smart home compatibility, controlling over 100,000 devices from brands like Philips, Ring, Ecobee and more.
• Huge variety of form factors – tiny Echo Flex plugs, spherical Echo Dots, mid-sized Echo Show touchscreen models up to large 15.6 inch displays, high-end stereo Echo Studios with Dolby Atmos, and more. You can find an Alexa device optimized for pretty much any space.

In my testing Alexa is also very accurate at interpreting voice requests correctly to play media, control my smart home ecosystem, provide information on command and handle other common asks.

And no platform beats the deep Amazon ecosystems integrations for services like Amazon Music, Amazon Prime video, Kindle reading, Alexa Skills, and general shopping through Amazon.com.

If having the widest smart home device compatibility or ties into existing Amazon services matter most, devices running Alexa make the most sense!

Google Assistant Nest Devices

Serving as primary competition to Amazon‘s Alexa, Google Assistant began powering the company‘s foray into smart home speakers and displays known as Nest Home products in 2016.

Google Assistant brings excellent compatibility and unique benefits for households already invested into Android phones and Google services:

• Easy migration of existing Google account info and AI preferences learned by Google Assistant.
• Support for thousands of smart devices from Nest and other brands thanks to integration with the Google Home app
• Built-in Chromecast support. Google smart displays excel at finding and streaming entertainment across apps compared to rivals.
• Clean industrial designs that seamlessly blend into homes with lots of tablets and smartphones laying around.

Compared to Amazon‘s touch screen Echo Shows, I really appreciate the understated yet modern look of Nest displays like the Nest Hub Max on kitchen counters and bedroom nightstands. The home screen doubling as a personalized digital photo frame feels like a nice touch too.

And while Nest still trails Alexa devices in total smart devices compatible, Google is catching up quickly, and the first-party experience and content support is excellent:

• Cast videos from your Google Photos library is simple. The experience is so dialed in.
• Live YouTube TV integration with Nest is awesome if you are a subscriber. Just cast live sports and news to your display as easily as any Chromecast target.
• Searching across apps for entertainment becomes a breeze. Just verbally ask Google for a show, and let Assistant hunt across your installed services until content is found.

If you want tighter integration with Google‘s AI, services, and entertainment platforms, their Nest smart home devices are a perfect extension of that ecosystem (assuming some lost Alexa compatibility is acceptable).

Apple Siri-Enabled Devices

While Apple‘s products entered the marketplace years after Amazon got rolling, their Siri-powered smart HomePod line brings legendary design chops and audio engineering to the table:

• Support for Apple Music feels very seamless. Siri excels at finding new songs and playlists on command.
• HomePods integrate incredibly well across Apple‘s platforms like iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and the Apple TV. Everything feels cohesive.
• Both the full-size 2nd generation HomePod and compact HomePod mini feature amazing fidelity and room-filling sound given their diminutive size. These are easily among the best sounding smart options in existence.

The user experience for diehard Apple households can‘t be beat. However, right now HomePods continue to lag behind Amazon and Google devices when it comes to smart home ecosystem compatibility. But over time more manufacturers are bringing HomeKit integration to devices, helping close gaps.

And if you aren‘t all-in on Apple gear, some functionality is certainly lost when interacting with Android or Windows devices regularly. But taken as a tight, premium extension of Apple‘s ecosystems, the Apple HomePod line has fantastic synergy across both audio and general computing scenarios most users face daily.

Hopefully this overview clarifies why adding an AI-powered smart speaker or display makes sense in 2023 as the technology matures across convenience, security, and entertainment scenarios.

And while Amazon, Google and Apple take slightly different approaches, by outlining some of the core pros and cons of each platform, I‘m confident you now have clarity on which ecosystem may fit best based on your household tech setup, priorities and budget!

If anything remains unclear or you have any lingering questions, don‘t hesitate to ask in the comments. I monitor this blog closely because I love analyzing how people are making use of smart home tech in their real lives.

So consider the benefits shared above, browse some recommended models linked throughout this article, then take that first step towards making your home smarter this year!