Readers' Choice: The battle of the smart home assistants
Mashable's Readers' Choice Awards give you the chance to tell us about the products you use and love. With each survey you take, you're potentially securing a Readers' Choice Award for your favorite gadgets and gear.
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In case you missed it, we polled our readers on the smart home tech they use and love. The results are in, and your favorite smart home brands have been revealed. As part of that survey, we also asked our readers about their smart assistants of choice, pitting Alexa against Siri and Google Home.
This is a space that's rapidly changing, with Google revamping Google Home devices with Gemini AI, and both Alexa and Siri getting key upgrades for the AI era. While this is going on behind the scenes, millions of people are just looking for a quick download on the day's weather. So, when you need to automate your home's lights or find out whether you need an umbrella, which smart home assistant do you trust?
Check out our full Readers' Choice results, and continue reading for our breakdown of our readers’ preferred smart assistants.
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Your favorite smart assistants
Google is our readers' favored assistant, with an 8 out of 10 overall satisfaction rating. Amazon's Alexa follows behind with a 7.7, and Apple trailing at 7.2. Google was also rated highest for "most likely to recommend." To see how the brands scored across different categories, click through the chart below using either the arrow keys or the dropdown menu.
Voice recognition and response to prompts
Google is ahead of the competition in voice recognition, in our readers' experiences. It secured an 8.5 out of 10 rating, while Amazon received a 7.7 and Apple got a 7.6. Survey respondents called their Google Assistant-enabled products "reliable" and "awesome." One reported that Google Assistant seems to always find the answers to the questions they ask.
Another Google user said that they were overall very satisfied, but that occasionally, the assistant stops understanding or commands stop working.
A respondent who uses Amazon products said, "Overall, I've found the Alexa system to be 99.9 percent reliable. On a rare occasion, it will not catch a command to turn on or off a light. Its answers to questions beyond general knowledge are not strong (Google is much better), but suffice for most daily things." Another said, "Sometimes Alexa activates, indicating it is on, but does not respond to my command."
In addition to voice recognition, Google also took the cake in responses to questions and commands, scoring 8 out of 10, while Amazon and Apple scored 7.1 and 7.2, respectively.
Programmable actions, routines, and automations
Not enough respondents rated Google or Apple in programmable actions, so Amazon wins by default in this category. For routines and automation, though, Google is rated higher at 8.2 compared to Amazon's 7.5.
One survey respondent said that they like Alexa for routine items and integrations, but Google Assistant is better at answering questions.
An Alexa user reported that they have a morning routine that provides the weather report, reads news headlines, and turns on their office lights. That same person also uses Alexa to create shopping lists. They wrote, "The more I use it, the more things I find I can do."
For another reader, their best experience with the Amazon smart assistant is when they set up their smart home with Alexa and "connected everything from lights to thermostats to smart plugs." They enjoy the ease of controlling everything with their voice, especially when their hands are full.
A Google user wrote, "Our whole house has Google displays, speakers, TVs integrated with Google TV, and third-party plugs, bulbs, and the like. Just recently, I upgraded to a Google Mesh router. The third-party devices can occasionally be a bit tricky to set up, but once everything is working, it's nice to be able to control everything right in the Google Home app."
Likelihood to recommend
Mashable readers are most likely to recommend Google Assistant, with an 8.2 rating. Amazon Alexa follows behind with 7.8, while Apple's Siri trails at 7.1.
Google users appreciate being able to change the assistant's voice, the safety and convenience voice commands provide, Google's music recommendations, and the reliability.
Siri users called the assistant "awesome" and said it gives the proper information they need.
Multiple Amazon users said that they "love" their Alexa devices. One wrote, "My family owns a few different models of Alexa devices...I would recommend and will purchase more Amazon Echo devices in the future."
Topics Alexa Google Assistant Siri
Miller Kern is the Deputy Editor of Shopping and Reviews at Mashable, where she writes and edits reviews, roundups, deals, and news stories about tech products, including headphones, skincare devices, laptops, sex toys, e-readers, robot vacuums, and more. She's been covering all things shopping and tech, including shopping holidays like Prime Day and Black Friday, for Mashable since 2019. Miller can tell you which products are actually worth your money. She also explores trends in the shopping sphere, such as dupes and viral TikTok moments.
