I’ve Used Alexa+ and Gemini to Control My Smart Home and Both Systems Have Been Great.
AI-powered chatbots are coming to your smart home. Users who upgrade can gain access to Alexa+ and Gemini for Home, which will replace the standard Alexa and Google Assistant, respectively.
Once you gain access, you’ll be able to do everything we’ve become accustomed to with these next-generation AI assistants—conduct conversations in natural language, ask complex questions and receive answers, and simulate various hallucinations—while maintaining all the previous smart home functions, whether it’s turning off the lights or checking the video intercom.
I received access to these two updates within a week, giving me the opportunity to test them side-by-side. With an Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub, and several Philips Hue smart lights at my disposal, I got to work.
Upgrade to Alexa+ and Gemini for Home
Updates for Alexa+ and Gemini for Home will appear in the corresponding apps on your phone. You’ll be prompted to set up your new AI assistant and then complete a few basic setup steps (such as choosing a voice for the AI). After that, all you have to do is say “Hey Alexa” or “Hey Google” to the app on your phone or one of your smart devices and speak your command.
Alexa+ has one advantage over the web app: when used through a browser, you get a smart home control section you can switch to. The web version of Gemini won’t understand or execute any smart home-related commands, although, confusingly, it does sync chats you’ve had in the mobile app, and these commands will be included if you view them later.
Both of these AI apps offer only basic smart home control features (turning devices on and off) for free. Full use of Alexa+’s conversational AI will cost you $19.99 per month, although it’s also available through Amazon Prime for $14.99 per month. Note that this is a separate subscription from any Ring subscriptions required for video archiving.
The Gemini for Home plan includes conversational AI and video history for a fee. You can choose to pay $10 or $20 per month depending on how much video history you need (these plans replace the older Nest Aware plans). The higher tier also includes event descriptions and AI-generated summaries of what’s happening in any recorded videos (“the courier arrived at 1:00 PM,” and so on). If you’re already paying Google $19.99 or more per month for one of Gemini AI’s other plans, Gemini for Home will be included.
How Alexa+ and Gemini for Home relate to each other
After launching the AI, I asked which days I’d need an umbrella. While both assistants accurately understood the question and provided the weekly weather forecast, I preferred Gemini’s answer: it was more detailed and actually answered the question of whether I needed an umbrella on each specific day (Alexa+ simply indicated the probability of rain each day and left it up to me to decide whether I needed an umbrella, although the graphics were better).
I asked for some bathroom cleaning tips, and both Alexa+ and Gemini for Home gave me informative and error-free answers (as far as I could tell). Both systems also accurately summarized several movie plots for me without issue, though Alexa+ was more cautious about spoilers.
These are the types of questions and prompts you can ask through Alexa+ and Gemini, but I was most interested in the integration with smart home systems. When you upgrade to Alexa+ or Gemini for Home, all your existing devices with voice assistant access will also receive the update.
How Alexa+ and Google Home Integrate with Smart Home Devices
The challenges with Alexa+ and Gemini for Home start with controlling smart home devices, as they need to first recognize a simple command and then carry it out, rather than pontificate about smart lighting features or the best smart cameras available for families.
I expected a few bugs and glitches, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well both AIs worked: I was able to easily change the smart lighting settings with my voice, including the color and brightness, as well as whether it was on or off.
Scheduled actions also worked well: I set up Gemini for Home to turn on my smart lights at a specific time, then asked Alexa+ to turn them off later, and my instructions were followed exactly. You can also set these scenes to repeat at specific intervals, and they are saved in the app if you need to make changes.
If you have an Amazon or Google smart display, you can set up widgets for your smart home devices and control them with just a few taps. Both my Echo Show and Nest Hub allowed me to control the lighting status, color, and brightness from the screen, and both worked flawlessly, with virtually no lag.
I also tested reminders and timers—two other features you’ll likely want to access through your smart speakers or smart displays. Again, both Alexa+ and Gemini for Home performed well, correctly recognizing the direct command, rather than the more complex AI prompt, and executing the instructions.
Since I didn’t have any smart home cameras or doorbells installed, I wasn’t able to test the video features offered by these AI systems. Reports suggest they can be quite unreliable at identifying and summarizing video content, so don’t expect perfect accuracy. Overall, I found Alexa+ and Gemini for Home to be reliable, intelligent, and useful.