Smart speakers

With the HomePod mini, Apple finally has a smart speaker that one can reasonably consider as a good smart speaker. I mean that $350 original HomePod just wasn’t worth the cost.

Well, I copped the HomePod mini and as someone who has also had a Google home mini and an Amazon Echo Dot, I thought id share my thoughts on all three.

First things first. I have had and used the HomePod mini, the Google home mini (not the latest second-gen nest mini) and the original Echo Dot 3rd gen (Not the latest round 4th gen or the 3rd gen with a clock). I will be mainly talking about the models I had but a lot of points should carry over to the newer generations as well. I also use an iPhone with all three devices.

Price

The HomePod retails for $99, The Home Mini retailed for $49 (just like the new Nest Mini), and the 3rd gen Echo dot retailed for $49.99 (just like the new 4th gen model).

Although the HomePod cost double what the others do, I wouldn’t consider it to be an absurd price especially since the original HomePod was sooooo expensive. However, you just can’t ignore how well priced the other two are especially as most people buy these as a first step towards a smart home.

Setup

As expected, Apple’s setup process is by far the best, just hold your phone near the device and a magic popup shows up.

The Google Home has the second-best setup process, it isn’t bad but it isn’t as good as Apple’s. When you download the Google Home app, a neat little popup shows in the app saying there’s a device ready to set up.

Finally, The echo dot. The echo has by far the worst setup process but most of that has to do with the damn Alexa app (more on that soon). It has the least intuitive setup and I just felt was a pain to handle.

The associated app

All three have an app you use along with the device. Once again Apple wins here, The Home app is simple and intuitive. You can easily find settings and quickly manage your device.

Google has the next best app. The Google Home app is as simple and intuitive as the Apple Home app however finding settings is a nightmare. The settings for the device and home are spread out throughout the app so much it becomes such a headache. Although I will give the app some points because controlling media playing on the speaker using the app is pretty good.

Finally, we have the Alexa app…what a mess. The app is designed so that you can also use the Alexa assistant but my god is it horrible. Finding where to set up your device is difficult, finding where to modify the settings for your device is something else entirely. What’s worse is that some of the settings in the app you’d think are for the echo dot are actually for Alexa on your phone. Besides the totally stupid layout of the app, the design is even worse. It uses this outdated design with a horrible color scheme.

The wake word

The spoken wake word is oddly important considering it is the primary way you interact with your speaker. The echo dot wins here because “Alexa” is a simple and short wake word but if you don’t like that you can change it to something different (like “computer” if you’re feeling the sci-fi vibe) … this is assuming you can actually find the setting in the Alexa app.

Next, “Hey Siri” is good, there’s nothing much to get into here.

Google’s speaker has two wake words “Hey Google” and “Ok Google”. For some reason, I always have trouble saying that one, I sometimes have a small stutter and both of those just don’t flow right. Also, I struggled at times when I said the wake word multiple times which became a problem if I had multiple requests.

Media Integration

Google by far takes the cake on this one. The home mini has exceptional integration with Spotify and Netflix specifically but now works very well with Apple Music too! Of course, the home mini works brilliantly with Youtube and Youtube music as well. Plus you can cast media from many other services as well.

The echo dot comes in second. It works brilliantly with prime music (although prime music is terrible) and prime video. Like the home mini, it supports Apple Music too.

The HomePod lacks in this regard. It works extremely well with Apple Music, Apple podcasts, and other Apple Services. However even though, Airplay 2 is extremely fast and powerful, you’ll need to use other devices to play media.

Tech and smart home integration

All three speakers have their pros and cons however the Home Mini and HomePod. I am not going to go into the third-party smart home accessories, since most accessories nowadays support all three (Like the Philips hue lighting system) or at least two of the three (for example Sony tv’s support the HomePod and Google home mini).

The Google Home particularly works amazingly with Chromecasts and Android TVs. This is where that Netflix and Youtube integration works particularly well. The home mini can play individual titles from both services directly, I used this feature very often because it was so much easier to just say “Ok Google, play Brooklyn 99” (notice that I don’t even have to say “on Netflix”) than using a remote. Not to mention the integration with smartphones, you can quickly use the home mini to call you Ubers or send you directions via google maps on an android phone or an iPhone.

Next, The HomePod, like most Apple products, fits so well into the ecosystem that it's honestly magic. You can quickly pass music from your AirPods to your HomePod mini just by putting your phone next to it. (Also important PSA, most newer iPhones can handoff music to the HomePod but the U1 iPhones just do it faster. Then of course you have the integration with Apple TV which can work very well but I haven’t used an Apple TV with the HomePod I can’t speak for that very much.

Although the Google Home has some mobile integration, the HomePod has a more direct integration into iOS than the Google home does with Android. Also although both Google and Apple have intercom features between their smart speakers, the fact that Apple’s intercom also ties into iPhones, iPads, and Macs makes it more powerful for sure.

Finally the Echo dot. The echo dot works well with fire TVs and third-party accessories but doesn’t do anything particularly amazing. Although the drop in feature is pretty neat.

There is one other thing I want to note here. Apple’s HomePod also has one big benefit: Open Source accessories. HomeKit (the Apple smart home developer API) is open source and that allows people like me to quickly add our own devices to the HomeKit network. By using the Homebridge library, we can quickly integrate devices we make in the HomeKit network and intern with our HomePods. People have made cameras, alarms and so much more but I used the library to connect my smart mirror to the network. Google and Amazon also allow this but for once I feel like Apple makes this much easier.

Assistants

Although people say Siri is worse than Google Assistant and Alexa, I have always found them to be pretty equal.

Google’s secret

I needed a section just for this because there is one feature on the Google Home that I believe is pure genius. Although I now mainly use my HomePod, the Google home stays plugged in because of its alarms. While adding alarms is nothing special and managing alarms is a nightmare on the Google Home app, stopping an alarm works so well.

When an alarm plays, all you need to say is “Stop”.

No “Ok Google, stop”.

Just “Stop”.

It seems simple but this feature changed my life. I hate alarms cause you usually have to tap the device or something but this was so much better, I am shocked Apple and Alexa haven’t copied this yet.

Photo credit to Basic Apple Guy