How to choose a smart home ecosystem, Apple, Android and Amazon

As technology becomes a staple of our lives, many people have started to add it to their homes, creating a “smart home,” and the first step of any Smart Home is choosing an ecosystem,

and with each ecosystem having its pose and cons; it can often be overwhelming. So in this article, I will give an overview of each ecosystem and help you decide which suits your needs best.

What is a smart home ecosystem? 

A smart home ecosystem is a hub where all your smart devices (speakers, displays, lights, etc.) connect to  Each ecosystem/hub comes with its own smart assistant and mobile software, which are used to control your smart devices.  (the smart assistant and mobile software or what to make your home a smart home.)

Once you choose your ecosystem, you must buy devices that are compatible with that ecosystem. Devices incompatible with the ecosystem cannot be controlled and integrated with the devices in the ecosystem, essentially making those devices useless.

the different ecosystems

There are three major smart home ecosystems. There is:

1) apple’s-Home kit

2)Amazon’s-Alexa Smart Home

3) Google’s-Google Home

These three are the most widespread ecosystems and are the only choice for a smart home, as most other ecosystems will integrate into these.

apple’s-Home kit

Homekit is owned by Apple, which ensures Homekit will only work on Apple-made devices. Additionally, Apple takes a tax from any device compatible with home kit. 

And with the addition of Apple vetting every single product, allowing only a select few to enter its ecosystem, it’s no wonder that home kit-compatible devices are costly. Especially when compared to its smart home ecosystem counterparts 

Not just that, but another consequence is home kit compatible devices are hard to come by, especially outside the United States. And because the selection is small, and if you are looking for a specialty item, it’s unlikely you’ll find it. 

But it’s not all bad; a consequence of Apple veting every product entering its ecosystem. Is you are almost guaranteed that any home kit-compatible device you buy will work well and complement your existing devices. 

It’s voice assistant Siri, which comes on every Apple device. Works beautifully and seamlessly with Home Kit, and the Home Kit software is easy to understand and use, ensuring an all-around smooth experience once you have purchased your devices.

Amazon’s-Alexa Smart Home

Amazon owns Alexa Smart Home. They manufacture most of the compatible products and are by far the cheapest. 

And that’s because of their genius but simple business model. They’re cheap so that you will choose them, and once you’re in, they’ll try to sell you Amazon services and products. And to ensure you have no excuse to choose Amazon’s Alexa Smart Home, they offer the widest variety of smart speakers and displays, far more than any other ecosystem.

But it’s not all good; Alexa herself, the voice assistant. She’s the worst voice assistant out of the 3 Voice assistants. (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant) She’s slow; her information response capacity is minimal, and for her to use your personal information, you must be using Amazon services. This makes using her extremely cumbersome if you’re not using Amazon services, and although she’s available on Android phones, you will not want to use her instead of the default Google Assistant, which is, in fact, one of, if not the best, voice assistant. 

The mobile software is okay, but it could have been better, especially If it had more integration with the mobile phone.

But despite that, their ecosystem has a wide variety of products from every category. So, unlike Apple’s home kit, you are almost guaranteed to find a product that suits your scenario. 

Amazon itself also makes a bunch of ecosystem products like lights, doorbells, cameras, etc., so As long as you buy them from them, you’re guaranteed they will work well.  And also, you get the additional benefit of Amazon making sure their prices stay lower than the competitors, so you will stick with Amazon.

Google’s-Google Home

Google owns Google Home. And it is the most integrated Smart Home ecosystem out of the 3. This is because Google owns the number one browser in the world, Google Chrome, and the number one phone operating system, Android; this allows them to integrate their Smart Home software into those services, which you have a High likelihood of already using, meaning a seamless experience with no need to transfer your account to have a better experience.

A great example of this is Google Assistant, Google’s smart assistant. It is the most useful assistant by far; it is fast, intelligent, and able to pull data from Google Chrome and other Google services, making it truly excellent.

Also, Google Assistant is automatically integrated into every Android phone, meaning if you are part of the 70% of the world that owns an Android phone, there is no need to familiarize yourself With it. You can keep on using it, just with the added ability of it now being able to turn on your lights.

The Google Home software that you use to control your home is intuitive and works well. It’s available on every mobile device currently on the market, meaning no matter what phone you have, you can use it to control your home. And have a good experience doing so

Another benefit of Google Home being out of the box so widespread is that so many devices are available on the Google Home ecosystem.  So you can basically get almost any smart home Gadget for your home, And there’s a 99% chance that it works with Google Home. 

This also means that Google’s ecosystem has the broadest price range; you can get devices for as cheap as a 10th of the other ecosystems and as expensive as double the price of the other ecosystems. Still, it is best to read a few reviews about the gadget before you buy it because the quality control on Google is lacking. That’s not to say all products are bad, but there are so many that are plenty of bad apples. 

side note

As briefly previously mentioned, there is something that is called a micro-ecosystem, which essentially is a brand that releases a bunch of Smart Home Products with all of those products integrating into one or more of the major three ecosystems, but that brand will have its own app to control those products, with it often also having exclusive features. 

(A few great examples of this are Samsung’s SmartThings, Philips Philips Hue, and Xiaomi’s Xiaomi Home.)

So my advice, because I am not going to get into all of them because there are so many, is to pick one that is as broad as possible, meaning it has the most extensive price range and product variety with it obviously also working with your chosen ecosystem.

conclusion

So, after you have understood what each ecosystem has to offer, this is the one I think you should choose:

If you and your entire household have an iPhone and are heavily embedded into the Apple ecosystem, and you have the means to pay the premium to buy all of the devices for your home, and you are in an area where you can easily find home kit products. And if you’re okay with the small variety,  Then most definitely go with Apple’s home kit. It will give you the best smart home experience possible. Given you’re using Apple’s other products and services

But if you’re looking for a cheaper option and are living in an area with Amazon support and you use their services,  and you also don’t mind. Having a less efficient software and voice assistant, then yes, if you’re looking for a low-price option with good variety, Amazon is a solid choice.

But if you are literally any other person, or you’re unwilling to handle Apple’s premium price or low variety. In that case, Google’s Google Home is the only choice. It offers everything you need:  A variety of products, great Mobile software, and an excellent smart assistant.  It automatically integrates with other Google services,  and, of course, it has a healthy price range.