You should not be surprised to listen the following kind of phrases even if a person is alone in his room: “Okay Google, Call Mom” , “Alexa, turn on the TV”
The person is not mad. He might have a Google Home or Amazon Echo or some other smart speaker at his place.
Smart Speakers are reaching more and more people across the world and the use of smart speakers is increasing day by day. But, many people are not even aware of how a speaker talks with you or why the so called speakers are called smart.
In this blog, let us understand what are smart speakers, how they work and much more.
Demystifying the term “Smart Speakers”
Everyone reading this might be aware of what speakers are. From the big huge speakers which were used traditionally to small compact smart speakers, the world has evolved a lot. You would be using “Smart Phones”.
As per Google, a smart phone is a mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer, typically having a touchscreen interface, Internet access, and an operating system capable of running downloaded apps.
Let us now understand, what exactly are Smart Speakers. A speaker which can be controlled using voice commands and has an integrated virtual assistant is called as a Smart Speaker.
How Smart Speakers Work?
Smart Speakers act as a Voice Assistant. They work on speech recognition. Different companies have different speech recognition system. Microsoft has Cortana, Google has Google Assistant, Apple has Siri and Amazon has Alexa. Every smart speaker gets activated when you say the “wake word“. As soon as it hears the wake word, it starts listening to you.
Wake Word for Apple’s Siri is “Hey Siri“. Similarly, Google has wake word “Ok Google” and Amazon Echo has “Alexa“. As soon as the wake word is heard, the system activates, listens to what you speak , deciphers it and send a response back to the speaker. The speaker then speaks up the response.
This is a beautiful process. There are a set of algorithms which let this happen. At high level, the speaker listens to you, processes what you say and speaks back to you.
Is the sound quality of Smart Speakers good enough?
A smart system is meant to be a good voice assistant and give you a personalized experience. They are not like your traditional home theater or audio systems which have high volume. Though multiple smart speakers can be placed at different locations in house and integrated to get experience of a home theater system, but the cost goes much higher than the regular music systems.
Also, for the people in India, sound quality plays a key role. If you just want to listen to music, then smart speakers are not for you.
Pros and Cons of Smart Speakers
Pros of Smart Speakers:
- Smart speakers are stylish and compact. They can be placed anywhere in the house and they also serve as a home decor item.
- They are smart enough to automate lives. Smart speakers act as your assistant. You set alarms, book tickets, order food, listen music and the list goes on.
- Online music streaming helps you to listen any song on internet without actually downloading the song.
- They are talkative. You can talk with them as much as you want and they will not get tired or bored.
Cons of Smart Speakers:
- Smart speakers with less powerful microphones cannot listen you when there is a lot of noise.
- Also, the smart speakers are highly dependent on your internet connection.
- Smart speakers need a nearby power cord as most of them are not battery operated.
- If other devices in home are producing the same frequency as that of smart speakers than there is interference and you get some disturbance in your music.
- Every person has different accent and especially we Indians have quite a different accent. It might not necessarily understand what we want to convey always. And, it might give irrelevant results too.
- Also, it is not yet available in regional Indian languages
- It makes you dependent and lazy
- As you can talk with them, you will slowly avoid human interactions
Are Smart Speakers Safe?
While technology makes life easier on one side, there is always a dark side to it. A lot of people say that smart speakers are not safe as they hear whatever private conversation you are having. Companies use your conversations to target ads to you.
As we know that smart speakers listen to you only when you use the wake words. But, this means that they are always waiting for the wake words and listening to you. How would they hear the wake words if they are not consistently listening to you?
Security is a major concern with them and though the companies claim that they are safe, many users have faced several issues. Technology makes lives easier and faster. But, every coin has 2 sides. The dark side over here is of privacy.
Both Google and Amazon keep a copy of your voice commands in their cloud. This helps them improve their services. But, would you like your private conversations being stored by someone?
But, if smart speakers are smart, people are smarter. Few people say that they turn them off (remove power cord) when not in use.
What are the various smart speakers available in India?
The various options in smart speakers are increasing and this might confuse the buyer. Let us have a look at few of the best smart speakers available in India.
Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen)
Amazon echo dot is a voice-controlled smart speaker. It comes with Alexa which is a virtual assistant developed by Amazon. It is very small but powerful. It has audio which is better than it’s previous models and also Google Home Mini. It has 4 microphones to listen to your commands. So, even if you are across the room, you can talk with Echo Dot.
You can order food from Zomato, carpenter from Urbanclap, cab from Ola or even order stuff from Amazon itself. Echo Dot does it all for you.
If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber than you get a better experience of music streaming with the help of Prime Music. Else, you can play music Saavn, Gaana, Hungama, etc.
You can make calls, put alarms, reminders and control smart home devices like TV, AC, bulbs, etc with this powerful assistant
Buy Echo Dot From Amazon At ₹ 3,999
Google Home Mini
Google Home Mini is the mini version of Google Home. The speaker is tiny and stylish and available in 2 colors “Chalk” and “Charcoal”. It is very light weight.
It comes with Google’s virtual assistant – Google Assistant. As it is a Google product, searching for information is not an issue. Whatever you may ask, you are likely to get relevant answers.
Also, the natural language processing used by Google Assistant is stronger than others. The smart speakers learns on it’s own and try to give you a personalized experience. In India, the shopping and calling features are not yet available. It might be rolled out in future updates. But, this drawback makes Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) a better choice for those who want shopping and calling feature too. But, the search experience which one gets with Google devices can’t be beaten by anyone else
Buy Google Home Mini From Flipkart at ₹ 3,999
Eufy Genie
Eufy Genie is an Alexa enabled smart speaker. Every feature you get in Amazon’s Echo Dot is present in Eufy Genie. That is, you can set alarm, listen to music, control smart home devices, calling, shopping, etc. As it is a third-party speaker, the cost is little lesser than others.
Also, the sound quality is better than Amazon Echo Dot. It is equipped with 2W speaker which gives you room-filling sound. People are not aware about this brand much. Eufy Genie comes with 12-month warranty and lifetime technical support. So, if you need better sound and want to go for a low priced smart speaker, Eufy Genie is for you.
Buy Eufy Genie From Amazon at ₹ 2,399
Google Home
Google Home is a powerful version of Google Home Mini. The voice quality is better. The size of the speaker if also bigger and the cost is also higher than that of Google Home Mini.
As we already know that search with Google Assistant is one of the best, Google Home gives you a great experience. You can connect it with your home theater system using Chromecast. It also features Bluetooth. It can act as standalone Bluetooth speaker too. Calling and Messaging functionalities are not yet available on it.
But, if you want better sound quality than buy Google Home over Amazon Echo as it’s sound quality is better than that of Echo.
Buy Google Home From Flipkart at ₹ 7,999
Amazon Echo Plus (2nd Gen)
We have seen that Google Home is a bigger and better version of Google Home Mini. In the similar way, Echo Plus is a bigger and better version of Echo Dot.
Echo Plus comes with better sound quality than that of Echo Dot. Echo Plus comes with 7 microphones which makes it a powerful listener too. It can hear you in a noisy room and also while playing music. It comes with 15,000+ skills like ordering food, booking cab, setting alarms, etc.
The key difference between Echo Dot and Echo Plus is of the audio quality. Echo Plus comes with dual speakers powered by Dolby. Also, it can act as a powerful smart home hub.
Buy Echo Plus (2nd Gen) From Amazon at ₹ 14,999
Echo Spot
Echo Spot is a smart speaker with a display. It is so compact that you can place it anywhere in your house. You can personalize your Echo Spot with a collection of clock faces or set a background from your Facebook photos.
The 4 powerful microphones in Spot have noise-cancellation functionality which makes it possible for your Echo Spot to hear you even in noisy environment or when songs are being played. It can also connect to other speakers using a 3.5 mm stereo cable or Bluetooth to add voice control to your home stereo system.
Spot has a front facing camera which can be used to make video calls. Besides as it is an Alexa device, it can book tickets, order food, set alarms and do any other activity which Echo Plus or Echo Dot does.
Buy Echo Spot From Amazon at ₹ 12,999
Echo Show
Echo Show is a smart speaker which comes with HD screen and premium audio. It not just a regular smart speaker. It allows you to watch movies and TV shows too.
You can watch your favorite news or do a video call using Echo Show. It has all the functionalities which Amazon’s other smart speakers have. You can consider it as the super set of all other Amazon’s smart speakers.
It has built in smart home hub and 8 microphones which makes it a powerful listener. It’s design is stylish and can be placed on any table. It is one of the finest speaker and provides a wonderful experience.
Buy Echo Show From Amazon at ₹ 22,999
Conclusion
This was the list of best smart speakers available in India right now.
Apple also has it’s smart speaker – HomePod. HomePod is not yet available in the Indian Market. You can read more about it here.
The market is expanding rapidly and the innovations made in this field are quite notable. Will virtual assistant replace the personal assistant? Time will decide.
What is your perspective about smart speakers? Which turned out to be your favorite smart speaker? Please share it in the comments section. Also, feel free to share any suggestions or feedback.