Short background: I work in tech, and actually have worked with RF mesh types of devices in my career. I have a family + increasing work hours. Would like to eventually go to a more full-featured system like home assistant on one of my PIs, but for now, mostly have a ton of Hue lights and hub, a few switches, Ecobee, and…… Ring doorbell (I know, I know - but killer deal and nothing else Ring in the house), and a few cameras.
I want to be adding a front door lock, possibly a water sensor in the crawl space, garage door opener. We have a lot of glass/windows in the house, but automated blinds and the like are definitely some ways out. I do use scheduling when we’re away but that’s through Hue at this point, not Alexa.
Why do I want to change especially when I have nearly given up on Siri for being useful (soooo very far behind on ‘AI’ in general, but different convo…)?
- Amazon data collection. Yeah, I trust them moderately more than Meta/Facebook, but that’s saying
- Google’s no better and probably worse as they and meta both track you to monetize your habits and info for ad revenue and targeting.
- I kind of dig what they’re trying to do/get to with Matter, Thread, etc. Zigbee and Z-Wave are pretty darned old, and while reading quickly it seems like the hw and software isn’t quite there yet, well - I’ll be adding stuff for a while.
- I’m at the point where I don’t really have much single ecosystem investment, but that’s going to start growing, so now’s the time to switch if I’m going to.
The HUE lights, Sonos Arc, Ecobee can all do homekit. The couple of plugs can either do Homekit or I’m ok with replacing. I might keep a single Echo Show (2 5” bought during various Black Fridays for almost nothing) around until I replace the Ring doorbell at some point. The other misc cameras I’m ok leaving independent for now but eventually need to sort (Wyze intentionally as ‘know they will get replaced but don’t know by what yet, so why spend big?), and not worried if I need to replace a couple of switches here and there (although I think they’re all HUE driven vs Alexa specific).
I’ve got 2 Apple TV 4Ks (last or current gen), family is pretty much Apple (and Linux…) from watch, iPad, laptops standpoint. I’d be ok adding a couple of HomePod Minis if I really must.
I have scanned threads here, and interestingly saw numerous comments on having to repeat things multiple times for Alexa (which my wife seems to hit a lot but I don’t) while Siri, amazingly, got it right, while I’ve had an underwhelming experience with Siri just turning off an alarm or setting a timer on my watch I’m 3” from vs my ipad 20 feet across the room.
I don’t keep up on deep dive levels of info in home automation as it’s fascinating stuff, but just family and work time beat out hobby time nowadays, so pretty much open to any tips, DONT DO IT, and the like.
Have to love some of the hyped ‘rivalries’ that burn the users.
Sony/netflix/apple/amazon for movies AND music, etc.
We’re still on Prime (although I wear starting price used to be like half, $60 or $69/yr, getting nuts across all subscriptions now) so have whatever variant of Prime Music included, plus our music collection, so Spotify isn’t a huge concern here but can see it as another loss for users in general.
’Siri sucks’ in this case being due to Spotify annd the others or at general voice to speech?
For my use case, yes. Siri is okay at following commands if you keep them simple and never vary your commands (turn on the lights in the living room, vs turn on the living room lights). She’s not great at much else. If you use Apple Music, a HomePod is still a good choice. If you don’t, then Apple doesn’t do Amazon Music, Pandora, etc. either. The HomePods are also much more expensive than putting echo dots everywhere if that is a consideration. I bought a bunch of Echo Dots in Prime Day a few years back because they were half off, and the HomePod mini hadn’t been released yet. For less than the price of a HomePod I could have a smart speaker in every room of my house, including the garage, shed, bathrooms, etc.
I’m not knocking the other smart speakers out there if they fit your use case. I am saying that the HomePods are intentionally limited to keep 3rd parties out. That’s a deal breaker for me, but it might not be for you.
Not thrilled about any of the ‘walled gardens’ honestly, but it’s all about finding the tradeoffs that work for each of us. I may well wind up back at Alexa, but want to at least give it a shot (preferably without huge $ investment before finalizing a path ;) ).
And yeah, the difference between ‘might as well pick up a few more dots b/c Black Friday sales’ (how I wound up with the Ring cam actually, Ring Pro + another Dot were ~ 50% of normal Ring pricing, etc.) vs the $100 a pop minis.
Realistically speaking, I suppose it’s all a ‘drop in the bucket’ when Matter/Thread sockets let alone home locks and the other sensors are close to those price ranges for 1-2 devices and higher.