And there are some major coexistence exceptions: Google is currently blocking its YouTube videos from appearing on the Echo Show and Echo Spot devices, for instance (although you can get there using a web browser on the second-generation Echo Show), and Apple’s HomePod will stream music only from Apple Music (or other services from a mobile device using AirPlay, but that ties up your mobile device). That said, if you’re wedded to Google Play Music, streaming music from your account to an Amazon Echo is not perfectly seamless (the same goes for streaming music from Amazon’s services to a Google Home). The Sonos Beam can be configured with either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Michael Brown / IDGĪn increasing number of soundbars double as smart speakers. Buying an Amazon Echo, for instance, won’t limit you to subscribing to Amazon’s music services-you can also use it with Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM radio, and several other services. And even if you have a smart home system from one company, you can use voice commands to control smart home products that would be otherwise incompatible with that system-provided those devices are compatible with your digital assistant of choice. On the upside, choosing one brand of smart speaker over another generally won’t tie you into that brand’s entire ecosystem. That said, this is the best-sounding smart speaker on the market today. The Zeppelin sounds as awesome as ever, but buyers should make sure that none of its “coming soon” features are ones they can’t live without.
B&W brings Alexa to the fourth generation of this iconic wireless speaker, rendering it smart for the first time. Updated Novemto add our Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin review. Once you commit to one platform, you’ll want to stick with it. That’s not how it works in the real world. In a perfect world, these devices would be interoperable, so you could buy one brand because it’s better for music, another brand because it’s the best for smart home control, and a third because it’s superior for retrieving general information from the internet. If you’ve already decided you want a smart speaker, click here for our top recommendations.īut consider your decision carefully. Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, and other digital assistants can help you in dozens of ways, and you don’t have to lift a finger to summon them-just speak their names. You don’t need to live in a smart home to benefit from smart speakers.