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Comment by gh02t | Hacker News Reader

I actually find ghome to be better for smart home use. The app is a little more intuitive with organization and it is a lot better with recognizing the names of your stuff. Alexa would have trouble recognizing arbitrary names while ghome almost always gets it right.

I started with Echo but ended up replacing it with Google Home because I like it so much more.

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Thankfully I am not the only one who thinks this! I had an argument with my brother over IoT devices with Echos vs Google Home products.

Google Home still requires you to use 3rd party apps but you are forced to set up the device in a location in your home/apartment. I can walk into my apartment and say "Ok Google, turn on all lights" and not have to worry about which brand of lights turn on.

When I used my Echo Dot my brother got me last Christmas, I had so many issues with the same command.

You can create “Routines” on the Echo (like IFTTT procedures). You could easily create one for “Alexa turn on all lights” that triggers all of your smart home lights regardless of brand.

And then another one for "dim all lights" and another one for "brighten all lights" and another one for "set all lights to warm white" and another one for...

YMMV but "Alexa turn on my lights" works for fine for my Hue lights. I'm using the Hue skill.

This is the big difference. The GH supports natural language for most things and the Echo requires more rigid or basically commands you have to memorize to use.

I think of our Echo as a command line and our Google homes as using a GUI.

BTW, GH is also a lot easier for old people has been my experience.

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