Every fourth US household owns a smart speaker; 78% own an Amazon Echo and 28% own a Google Home (Nielsen, 2018).
These devices use voice commands to play music, control other smart home gadgets, and respond to questions. They can also be used to make calls and connect with friends and family members.
How they work
Smart speakers work with a voice-based digital assistant, such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. These virtual assistants are typically activated by saying the speaker’s activation words like “Hey Siri,” or “Ok Google.” Once this happens, your smart speaker will listen to what you say and respond to it.
These speakers are connected to a network of smart home devices, so they can be programmed to control them. This can help to make it easier to manage a number of different tasks around the home, such as turning on lights or enabling your home security system.
They can also provide you with news headlines, weather forecasts, and other information. They can even play music from their own playlists or directly from a linked account to a music service like Spotify.
There are a wide range of smart speakers on the market, so it’s important to know what you want before you buy one. They range in size, from small models that sit on a desk to larger versions designed to fill a room with sound.
Some speakers also have a screen, so you can see visual information alongside your voice replies. This can be anything from a week’s weather forecast to a video feed from your security camera.
The smart speakers themselves are relatively easy to use, and most come with a short set up process and a user-friendly app that you can download on your phone. You can then ask questions and give commands, allowing you to interact with your smart speaker using voice and the microphone on your smartphone.
You can also use the smart speaker to control other devices in your house, such as lighting and other appliances, via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. You can use the smart speaker as a remote to change the settings on other devices, or you can set up Routines that will automatically perform tasks, such as turning on your TV at a specific time each day or locking the door.
There are a range of brands that offer smart speakers, with some offering more features than others. The Amazon Echo and the Google Home are two of the most popular options. Other brands include Sonos, Bose, and Apple’s HomePod.
Technology
Powered by AI-powered digital assistants, smart speakers are the new generation of voice-enabled speakers that provide you with a variety of services, ranging from entertainment to home automation. They can control light bulbs and thermostats, set timers and make restaurant reservations for you.
Most of these devices work using one of the following digital assistants – Alexa (Amazon), Assistant (Google), Siri (Apple) or Cortana (Microsoft). This software can be found on many other devices as well, so it’s always worth checking out if a speaker supports your preferred assistant before purchasing.
While the majority of these devices are designed to be used for music and entertainment, they’re also very handy for answering a variety of questions, providing the weather forecast or offering information about traffic conditions. They can also be connected to other smart home devices, such as door locks and window shades, and are a convenient way to control lights, music, and heating.
In addition, these devices are easy to use and can be placed around the house. You simply activate the device with one or more “hot words,” and you can ask your smart speaker anything from a question to a command.
The technology behind these speakers is a combination of speech recognition, artificial intelligence and machine learning. For speech recognition to be effective, it must first filter out background noise and analyze the words you say. It then labels them and loads them into an AI system to understand what you’re saying.
With so much data to process, the algorithm must be able to handle a large number of different dialects and accents. This is a huge challenge for machine learning. It’s why Google, Amazon and startups like Voiceitt are focusing on enhancing the technology to better respond to people who have language barriers.
As technology continues to advance, we can expect more options for speech recognition, and it’s certainly a worthwhile investment to consider when choosing your next smart speaker. For now, though, you should know that if your speaker doesn’t support the voice recognition you want it will be hard to get it to understand what you are saying – and you may end up with a speaker that works well for you but isn’t as good as it could be.
Apps
You can use a variety of apps with Smart Speakers to interact with the devices. The apps may be able to connect the speakers to services like Spotify or Apple Music, as well as other devices such as televisions and smart home appliances.
The app should also make it easy to set up the smart speaker, and to control the features that are already on the device. For example, the Google Home app is a great choice for controlling the devices you can connect to your speaker.
Most smart speakers work by listening to your voice and then using that information to complete tasks for you. You can have the speaker tell you weather forecasts, give you traffic information, order a pizza delivery, or control other smart home devices.
Some smart speakers are more advanced than others and can perform many tasks that your smartphone can do. These smart speakers typically have a voice assistant like Google Assistant, Alexa, or Siri that you can use to search the Internet and operate many apps through your voice commands.
Smart speakers can also be used to make Internet voice and video calls with other compatible speakers, allowing you to speak to someone from a distance through the audio connection. This feature is useful for family and friends that live far away, or if you have an elderly parent or grandparent who lives far away.
In addition to playing music, many smart speakers can also be used as a home security system. They can send you notifications if they hear the sounds of a smoke alarm.
One of the most popular smart speakers on the market is Amazon’s Echo, which is available in several sizes and has a wide range of functionality. It can play music, answer questions, set reminders, make lists, and more.
The Amazon Echo app is also an excellent way to connect and control other smart devices you own. It displays the list of devices in a single screen, and it lets you set up routines that will automatically control your lights, thermostat, or other smart devices when you leave home or return.
Cost
A smart speaker is a digital device that connects to the Internet via your Wi-Fi network and acts as a voice-controlled personal assistant. Its main function is to help you control your home environment with voice commands, like “Alexa, turn the lights on” or “OK Google, tell me the temperature”.
Depending on your needs and the type of device you want to buy, there are many different options available in the market. They are typically designed to be the central controller for smart homes and offer a range of features that make life easier. They usually cost between $25 and $250, but some of them have more features than others.
One of the first smart speakers on the market was the Amazon Echo, which is still one of the best-selling models and has a large following. It can be purchased in a variety of sizes, including the Echo Dot, which is incredibly inexpensive and is often discounted.
There are also a number of cheaper smart speakers that can be bought for less than $50, including the Google Nest Mini and Apple HomePod Mini. Neither of these devices has the high-end audio performance of its bigger competitors, but they do provide good value for their small size and low price.
For more serious users, there are a few higher-end models that also perform well. The TP-LInk WiFi Range Extender is an example of a product that will help to keep your smart speaker connected to the internet, and the Sonos One is another option to consider if you want better sound quality.
You can also find more advanced models that allow you to stream music from other devices, as well as control smart lighting and other smart home devices. The more features you add, the more expensive the device will be, and it is best to choose a model that will be useful for you for a long time.
The main feature you will want to look for when buying a smart speaker is its ability to interact with the digital assistants that are available, such as Alexa and Google Assistant. These are the most popular choices, but there are also a number of other systems that you may want to look into as well, such as Apple HomeKit.
