The best home automation systems of 2023

April 18, 2023 TH Author

Features: Intuitive voice controls | Fantastic automation power through the Alexa app | Easy-to-use interface

So voice control is a huge deal in home automation. You want to feel like a high baller when you walk in and have a robot assistant waiting on you 24/7, right?

Having tried Google, Alexa, and Siri, I can tell you that for voice control fans, the right voice assistant can make or break your smart home. Personally, I find Alexa to be the most accurate in her responses and understanding of my commands, Google is probably middle of the road, and Siri still plays Sweet Caroline when I ask her to turn on the downstairs lights.

Now, Alexa isn’t perfect, we know that. But she is a favorite for smart homes and going the Amazon Alexa route ensures vast compatibility, as it’s the most popular voice assistant out there.

Setting up the Amazon Alexa app is pretty easy, the platform is built around Alexa, and you can easily add devices and customize your home. And with Amazon’s Frustration-Free Setup, setting up new devices will become even easier with fewer steps.

I do wish that some things like routines and your devices were more easily accessible on the Alexa App. Though they are both available on the app’s home, I find myself getting distracted by all of Alexa’s suggestions. And, to be honest, the app just isn’t the easiest to navigate in the beginning. You get used to it, however, and learn to easily make your way around it, but it shouldn’t have to take as long as it does to reach that point.

Connectivity and automations

Alexa is available on multiple Amazon devices, like the Echo speakers and Fire TV devices. It works through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee (on Echo 4th Gen, Echo Show except 1st Gen, and Echo Studio), and more recently, Matter.

The Alexa app has some pretty good automation power. Amazon is set on making America’s voice assistant out of Alexa, so it’s put quite a lot of effort into making sure she helps optimize productivity, routines, shopping, your access to information and current events, and how you cook and enjoy your music.

An Echo device, either a speaker or display, will give you access to thousands of skills and dozens of available routines to make the most of all your smart devices. You can set your Echo to detect a barking dog and have Alexa either play soothing music or let you drop in to soothe them. Alexa can even turn off a light when it hears snoring in the room, how creepy is that? Cool, I meant cool.

There are countless ways to take advantage of Alexa’s automation power and, with popularity still pretty high, more are turning up every day.