Wherever you go nowadays, more than half the people you see will be carrying their phone. One of the biggest divides among people is whether they have an iPhone or an Android Phone. Whichever they have, they often strongly defend their choice. They may even cast doubt on the wisdom of having the other.
Their phone can be used as a Smart Assistant and is extremely powerful. When you hear it can also control your Smart Home, it is very tempting to buy a few Smart Devices to be controlled by the Smart Assistant. If you believe the publicity, it all seems far too easy. What is not explained is that by this simple action you are linking to an Ecosystem from within your own home.
What Is an Ecosystem
Linking to an Ecosystem can be likened to adding a central nervous system to your home. This Ecosystem allows different Smart Devices to communicate with each other. This simple picture of an Ecosystem may suggest why you might run into problems. Buying a new set of Smart Devices may bring along with it a different Ecosystem. You can imagine the problems that may occur if two central nervous systems are trying to run the same Smart Home. The only way to avoid chaos is to have one of them as the master system whilst the other has more limited powers.
Walled Garden Ecosystems
There are three major Ecosystems: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit. For each of these Ecosystems, there is an array of associated Smart Devices. Amazon Alexa has by far the largest number of these. Until recently Apple HomeKit was the only one to adopt a “walled garden” approach. This limits the families of Smart Devices that are acceptable and these must adopt specified security rules. Amazon Alexa and Google Home were operated under a more flexible “open field” approach.
That all changed as of early May 2019. Google acquired the Nest brand of Smart Devices five years earlier. It has now combined Google Home and the Nest Ecosystem under the single brand (or Ecosystem), Google Nest. This new Ecosystem will be functioning on the “walled garden” basis as of August 31, 2019. Initially, it was announced that only a very limited number of partners would be accepted within the “garden”. There has been strong pushback and accommodations are now being negotiated with other partners.
Ecosystems and Artificial Intelligence
An Ecosystem, as defined above, means that you have a set of Smart Devices that are connected and can communicate with each other. You may have been surprised to see the words Artificial Intelligence in the heading above. If you think of your Smartphone as your Smart Assistant, this idea may be clearer to you. Whether you summon your Smart Assistant by using those magic words, Alexa, Siri or Hey Google, you will normally get a response that is somewhat sensible.
The three major companies are all working hard to improve the Artificial Intelligence that their own Smart Assistant is using. In choosing an Ecosystem, you will be influenced by the devices you wish to use. It is equally important that you take into account your preference in dealing with the associated Smart Assistant.
In selecting an Ecosystem/Smart Assistant combination, you need to consider the current technology and how it may evolve. As an example, at its recent I/O 2019 Conference for developers, Google announced that it would be releasing in the near future Google Assistant 2.0. Digital Trends describes this as a game-changing upgrade. Here is their explanation:
Google Assistant uses three complex algorithms to understand, predict, and act upon what we’re saying, which requires 100GB of data storage and a network connection to operate. Google announced it has used deep learning to combine and shrink those algorithmic models down to 500MB — and that means it’ll fit happily on our phones, and stops network latency slowing responses and actions down.
TechieLiving can provide you with an up-to-date view on the relative strengths of these three contenders if you are thinking about which Ecosystem is right for you.
Problems With Different Ecosystems
You may already have multiple Ecosystems operating in your home without realizing it. Your Amazon devices can only work when controlled through your Amazon Alexa app. Both iPhones and Android Smartphones can be equipped with this app. The Alexa app cannot be used as the default Assistant on iPhone. It can be the default on an Android Smartphone but you would probably prefer to stay with the Google Assistant.
You can understand the problems that may arise as a result of this. If you have an Amazon Fire TV, it can only be controlled through the Alexa app. Similarly, Apple TV can only be controlled by Siri and Chromecast can only be controlled by the Google Assistant.
Another disadvantage of working with different Ecosystems is that these Smart Assistants learn by interacting with you. Artificial Intelligence is also called Machine Learning and that is what is going on all the time. They do this to improve the intelligent services and features they are offering. If your time and activities are split between different Assistants, there is less opportunity on each for this self-improvement.
One final word of caution is that switching from one Ecosystem to another is a big decision. There are many implications of the switch and all should be considered before taking this big step.
Using Neutral Hubs With Different Ecosystems
Sometimes different Ecosystems cannot be avoided. Different family members may have strong preferences for different Ecosystems or such devices may already be in use. In this case, there is another solution. This is to use a neutral Hub like SmartThings from Samsung. On that Hub you should in this case implement all the logic of your Smart Home including the Routines and Scenes. This can then be controlled through either Google Home or Amazon Alexa. The Lutron hub works in a similar way and can be controlled by all the three major Assistants.
Techieliving Can Help With Your Choice of Ecosystem
If at this point you would like to start building your Smart Home but are not sure which Ecosystem would be best, then TechieLiving can help you. The initial step is to work together to analyze your needs and your budget in order to develop a Smarter Home Master Plan.
If you are reading this in May, you have a chance to have this service for free if you subscribe to our Newsletter. If you want to stay on top of what is happening in the Smart Home field, this is essential reading.
Further reading on this topic
A great deal is being written on this topic and the two following articles are just a selection of what you will find.
- The best smart home systems: Top Ecosystems explained – The Ambient 2019-01-11
- How to Choose the Right Platform to Run Your Smart Home – Gizmodo 2019-05-17
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