ALEXA VERSUS EVERYONE

You’ll find that in very many cases, devices that work with Alexa also work with other smart home systems – most commonly Google Assistant, but often Apple Homekit and Samsung Smartthings too. That’s because most manufacturers want to sell their products to as many people as possible, and Amazon is one of them: while many of its products work brilliantly with Alexa, they’ll also happily play with Google Assistant or Siri too.

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It’s worth taking that into consideration when you’re choosing your smart home products, because the platform that suits you now might not suit you in the years to come. For example, one of the Stuff team recently moved from one platform to another, and because they’d invested heavily in its smart speakers (which don’t work with the digital assistant they use now) they had to buy a whole new set of connected speakers. Looking for maximum compatibility now could mean minimum expense later.