Due to our previous discussions, we already know that each market, whether it is desktop, smartphones, or smart homes, has a steady supply of interactive voice-based personal assistants. Almost every assistant can do whatever its counterparts can accomplish, but this leads to the question, where do the actual differences lie? Is there something that Alexa can do better than Google Assistant or vice versa?
This book is based on Alexa, which is a Smart-Home based personal assistant, so in this section, we shall compare Alexa and Google Assistant to understand the finer differences between the two:
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Alexa
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Google Assistant
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Uses the invocation phrase, "Alexa" |
Uses the invocation phrase, "OK, Google"
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Flagship hardware—Amazon Echo device family |
  Flagship hardware—Google Home, Pixel 2, Android Wear
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Responds slightly better to e-commerce/shopping-related queries, since that is Amazon's main forte |
Responds slightly better to web-based queries since Google's major forte is web searching |
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Slightly inferior contextual awareness
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Better contextual awareness, hence conversations seem a little more natural |
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Capabilities of Alexa can be extended by installing third-party "skills" |
Capabilities of Google Assistant can be extended by installing third-party apps; however, it has fewer apps currently available for it in the market than Alexa has skills |
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A wider range of integration with smart home devices such as smart lights, smart locks, smart switches, and smart thermostats |
Slightly narrower range of integration with smart home devices |
In a nutshell, both Google and Alexa are very skilled voice-based assistants and accomplish a lot for their users; however, since Google Assistant is fairly new to the market, its integration and compatibility with third-party apps and hardware is still evolving, albeit at a very rapid pace. However, even being the newer of the two, Google Home still fares better in terms of web integration and contextual awareness.
It would be really interesting to see what the evolution of AI and Machine Learning brings to the table in the coming era and how these assistants are able to leverage that.
