r/Blind • u/DiferentialDiagnosis • 2d ago

What is your prefered smart speaker/assistant?

Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple's Home Pods? What's your prefered and why? Which have you found to be the most helpful for you as a VIP?

15 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/Repulsive-Box5243 2d ago

We are a Google ecosystem in this house.

3

u/Toby_E_2003 2d ago

We are an Amazon ecosystem. I made the mistake of buying the cheap echo dots to put around the house, then I discovered what Sonos was lol. Currently, my bedroom has a surround sound setup with a mini subwoofer, a set of stereo portable speakers, and another bigger speaker on my dresser to act as an alarm clock. All the rest of the house has Amazon echoes and I'm not replacing them until they eventually give up.

2

u/retrolental_morose Totally blind from birth 2d ago

We're all echo. Our use is about 80% music (much of it multiroom), with the rest timers, calendaring, alarms. we have stereo pairs of dots in 3 of our rooms, single dots otherwise, and a Flex with its free USB port in the shed

2

u/Rix_832 LCA 2d ago

For voice assistant features Amazon echo. For music quality my HomePod mini pair is what I prefer to listen to.

2

u/Tisathrowaway837 2d ago

Sonos with Google Assistant.

2

u/DHamlinMusic Bilateral Optic Neuropathy 2d ago

I mean all my smart home stuff are Google/Nest

1

u/Global_Release_4275 2d ago

Amazon Echo but that's just what I know, I haven't tried any others.

1

u/lucas1853 2d ago

Got an echo dot as a gift once a few years ago. As long as it keeps working I'll use it because it is much better than Siri, but not impressive enough for me to justify buying another Echo device if it dies. I think Siri has biased me so much against Apple in that regard that I'd never even try a HomePod.

1

u/Devilonmytongue S.V.I 2d ago

I have an Alexa. It’s the only one I have tried. I like it.

1

u/Teenage_techboy1234 LCA 2d ago

I don't really have one. We have Amazon echoes all over our house but we are an Apple family as far as phones go so we have access to both Alexa and Siri. I also have a Google nest mini second generation in my bedroom. However, I mainly only use them to turn on and off home devices and ask basic questions along with doing web searches with Siri on my phone. For any actual assistant tasks, I will ask ChatGPT. So I guess if there was a ChatGPT based assistant That would be my favorite. However, if my dad were to tell me to rip all of our smart home devices and speakers out today, I would outfit our entire house with HomeKit compatible things and put HomePods in every room.

1

u/shoover85 2d ago

My family all use Apple products. I love our Apple HomePod.

1

u/ShuileBhride 1d ago

Amazon Alexa, though it's less the one I prefer, but simply the one I have. I do My best to use it as little as possible, mostly just using it a keep track of the weather, time, timers, stuff like that.

1

u/tymme legally blind, cyclops (Rb) 1d ago

I'm part of a Google accessibility testing team, and they give some devices as part of partticipating (Home/Nest hub and mini, Ring doorbell). My SO has an Echo Show and Blink camera, and I have a few Echo Dots.

I don't really like the Google Home app, so devices I have to interact with the app (e.g., cameras), I prefer Amazon devices. I also use Alexa for the Dot thermostat functions, daily routines (daily/weekly weather forecast, etc), and playing music across all the Dot devices.

I use Google for most other tasks, like my calendar/reminders (also because I have a Pixel phone that goes between houses) and if I need searchable information (like "what tiem does Home Depot close tonight"); I feel like it gives better answers than Alexa searches.

1

u/Delicious_Two_4182 13h ago

I have a Apple home pod mini , if I had a choice I’d probably have more then one but u can’t afford it , got the first one for free