Starting Up with Smart Home

[Legion]

Hey,

Just wanted to see your guy's options on starting with Smart Home products. Like Amazon Echo vs Google Home and the different devices you have setup for smart home. Currently the only "Smart Home" device I have is a smart thermostat that let me adjusts the tempature via my phone.

Let me know (and if you have pics of setups) of what you're using.

 

[Adil]

We have a ring bell at home which is quite nice, very useful when you're out and about. Would recommend buying one

 

[Macemore]

I honestly thought Google was just entering the market for a cash grab but they are really doing things better, Chromecast is the only thing I think Amazon is winning with, their Firestick has built in channels or whatever and my mom loves that shit. I tell her casting is the way to go but having a remote is nice. Other than that, Google's integration with everything is seamless and it really makes things feel extra high quality, not just the Google Home, but Google Now, app/phone/tablet/computer integration as well as some other device markets such as the phone and wearable tech market, they really make things tie together instead of that hodgepodge it kinda works but you need 13 apps to get around the licensing issues between all the companies. If you buy everything from one company it all works great and Google has been doing the best job of providing the most product outreach in that way. I had an Android Watch for a bit but it wasn't nearly as nice as the Gear S3, I thought until I couldn't get anything to work the way it used to, all the apps cost money and/or made by Samsung. Google is my choice by far for most things, especially my data collection. They seem to be doing the best

 

[CosmoPeak]

I've got a couple of smart bulbs and Google homes. Ngl, it's kind of annoying not "being able" to use the light switches at times (you can, it just means you can't use the bulb via whatever smart devices you have until you switch it again), but it's useful when you don't want to get up. Some of the smart doorbell and thermostat stuff would be really useful though, will definitely look into those when I can use them..