As if managing our interpersonal relationships weren't already challenging enough, now we have to worry about talking to artificial people as well. But which is the best virtual assistant —, or?We tested all three virtual assistants by asking them a battery of questions and evaluating their smart home capabilities, entertainment options, ability to provide us directions, shopping features and more.
After tallying the results, we found that Google Assistant is the best virtual assistant, narrowly edging out Alexa.While these three assistants offer many of the same features, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. And, of course, all three are all evolving at a rapid clip. But this is how they fare today.Update May 23: We've updated this story to reflect changes to each of the assistants' abilities. Since our last update, in 2018, all three assistants have improved, and Google Assistant retains its top spot, but just barely. General knowledgeBack in the 'old days,' when I had a question, my parents would tell me to look it up. (Disclaimer: My parents were both librarians, so this wasn't unexpected.) These days, you can just ask a computer. So, we tasked each of the top digital assistants with answering a battery of 20 general-knowledge questions.As in our previous shootout, Alexa just edged out Google Assistant, though the margin was slimmer than before.
Alexa took top honors largely because it provided additional context beyond the answer to the question. It failed on only a couple of questions: It couldn't tell me who held the all-time record for stolen bases in Major League Baseball (instead giving me the active player with the most career stolen bases), and it named the current secretary-general of the U.N. When I asked who the first person to hold that post was.
A digital assistant (commonly referred to as an AI) is generally housed in a smart hub and is the “brain” of a smart home system. Smart home assistants offer hundreds of standalone voice-activated skills that make everyday tasks a little simpler, from looking up a recipe to playing your favorite music.
However, the answers and comprehension from both Alexa and Google Assistant were generally spot on, requiring little rephrasing and rarely forcing me to ask more than once.Google AssistantSiri fared the worst in this department, although Apple employees have said this assistant was not designed to answer trivia questions. In roughly a quarter of the questions I asked, Siri on the HomePod apologized and said it couldn't answer my question. In a few other cases, it couldn't quite provide the information I wanted (it gave me the current baseball season's leaders in stolen bases) or responded with useless information; when asked what Harry S. Truman's middle name was, for example, it 'helpfully' answered, 'I found Harry and S.'
Siri on an iPhone and Alexa on an Amazon Echo.In those cases, I often asked the same question, this time to my iPhone. The answer was usually a list of search results, with the exception of identifying the first U.N. Secretary-general (Trygve Lie), which Siri did via Wolfram Alpha. However, Siri continued to provide the best info on last year's American League Championship Series results, and when I asked about the length of the movie The Avengers, Siri was the only assistant to ask for clarification about which of the many movies in the Avengers franchise I meant.Google Assistant's results were pretty close to those from Alexa.
It generally gave solid, fast answers with context, though Google's AI failed to understand my question about why the sky was blue (which was especially perplexing in that Google Assistant seemed to answer in previous shootouts). Google's program was the only one to correctly identify the all-time leader in stolen bases, Rickey Henderson. It even provided additional context, giving the number of steals he logged and noting that he is the only player to ever cross the 1,000-stolen-bases mark.General Knowledge standings: 1. Google Assistant; 3.
SiriMusic & podcastsMusic should be a strong suit for any smart assistant. Each of the three obviously integrates with its company's music services, and in some cases ties in with third-party offerings as well.
Alexa adroitly handled a request to play the Rolling Stones' 'Paint It Black' (because I subscribe to Amazon's Music Unlimited streaming service), as did Siri (as I have a subscription to Apple Music). And even though I don’t subscribe to any of the pay music services supported by the Google Assistant, it still played “Paint it Black” and a playlist containing other Rolling Stones songs on YouTube Music.Supported music services. Music ServiceAlexaGoogle AssistantSiriAmazon MusicYesNoNoApple MusicYesOnly on iOS devicesYesDeezerYesYesNoGoogle Play MusicNoYesNoiHeartRadioYesNoNoPandoraYesYesNoSiriusXMYesNoNoSpotifyYesYesNoTuneInYesNoNoTidalYesNoNoYouTube MusicNoYesNoAll three assistants responded to my request to play upbeat '80s music and West Coast jazz by offering up stations that matched those descriptions.SiriIn terms of being able to find and play podcasts, all three assistants have improved since our last comparison, though some still have problems. While all three assistants easily played the most recent episodes of both 'Wait Wait.
Don't Tell Me!' And 'The Incomparable' podcasts, Alexa struggled with the latest episode of the podcast 'Dragon Friends,' instead playing a podcast on a similar topic.Google Play Mini and Google AssistantAll three assistants offer offer some form of multiroom audio functionality, including creating groups of speakers via your smartphone. Alexa also supports audio playback from some music services to Sonos speakers, while Google Assistant can communicate with any Chromecast-connected speaker. And the HomePod has AirPlay 2 functionality, so Siri can play audio on speakers throughout your house, as well as via your Apple TV.However, both Google Assistant and Alexa also come built in to a number of third-party; if you want Siri in a smart speaker, the only option is to purchase Apple's HomePod.Music & podcasts standings: 1. Google Assistant/Siri (tie); 2. AlexaEntertainmentIntegration with home entertainment equipment is one of the coolest features of virtual assistants. With Alexa, you can now control your Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick or Fire TV Edition, including by opening apps, jumping around in time, and playing and pausing.
Google can likewise control playback on Chromecast-connected devices, including TVs with Chromecast built in. However, it offers only a few services, and you have to link some of the apps via your smartphone first. Additionally, Alexa and Google Assistant can control devices using a third-party intermediary like.Amazon Fire TV and AlexaSiri is in a peculiar position here. Thanks to a recent software update, you can use Siri on your iPhone or the HomePod to control music and podcast playback on an Apple TV or other AirPlay speakers.
But Siri can't handle any other functions, such as turning the device on or off, opening apps, or playing videos.Apple TV 4K and Siri RemoteThe current line of has Siri built in via the remote, so you can do much more, like skip around in a video, turn on captions and open apps. But it makes things less convenient if you need to find the remote, and Apple TV-based Siri offers no third-party integration.Continuing with the entertainment track, I tried to use the assistants to order movie tickets for Avengers: Endgame, which ended up being far more work on any of the platforms than using a good old-fashioned web browser. Of course, it can be quite confusing if you have multiple people in a household, and each assistant tries to tackle this problem in its own way. Both Google Home and Amazon Echo now offer multiple voice profiles, so you can train the device to recognize your specific voice and provide some degree of personalized response based on this.Google's Voice Match is the most sophisticated of these approaches, offering personalized calendars, flights, payments, photos and more; you can even set your own default media services.
However, I have not infrequently encountered problems with it recognizing my voice and refusing to give me access to my information until I've retrained my Voice Match. Alexa, meanwhile, currently offers only personalized shopping, calling and some media options.Apple has taken a slightly different approach with Siri: Before you activate the ability to use the 'Hey, Siri' wake phrase on an iOS device, you must train Siri to recognize only your voice. That prevents this assistant from giving your personal information to someone else and avoids the assistant responding on, say, both your iPhone and iPad.However, Siri on the HomePod tends to supersede that feature, responding to any 'Hey, Siri' request if it's in range, unless you are actively using your iPhone. And it doesn't have any sort of multiperson features, which sends Siri to the bottom of the standings here.Alexa and Google Assistant also have two voice-related features worth noting: First, both have an optional 'follow-up' mode, in which they remain active for a few seconds after answering your query, so you can issue another command without saying the wake word again. This mode is off by default in both cases, since it can lead to some false positives.
Secondly, both can understand 'and' both in commands and in items, so you can say 'turn off the lights in the office and turn on the lights in the living room' or 'add milk and bananas to my shopping list' without, say, getting a single item labeled 'milk and bananas.' Voice Recognition standings: 1. Google Assistant; 2. SiriExtendabilityBuilt-in features are all well and good, but sometimes you really want to add a feature that just isn't part of the package. In that case, you may need to turn to a third party, and these platforms differ significantly in that area.Alexa has more than. Not all of these are great, but chances are you can find something to meet your needs. And if you can't, you can always create some basic integrations using the IFTTT web service or create your own simple routines via the Alexa app.
The company also offers templates for some simple apps, such as game shows and information for houseguests, via its new feature.Google has taken a different tack with what it has dubbed actions. The Google Assistant, but they basically include all possible queries from both first- and third-party offerings, so it's hard to make a straight comparison with Alexa's library. Google also offers the best integration with IFTTT, letting you create custom actions without any real knowledge of programming.MORE:Apple offers a few different ways for third-party apps to work with Siri; one is a small handful of apps that Apple has approved in specific categories, including calling and messaging, ride-hailing, sending money, and creating to-do lists. But Apple has also greatly expanded Siri customization for users in the past year with the addition of, which lets people create custom phrases they can speak to trigger actions in compatible first- and third-party apps.Extendability standings: 1. Google Assistant/Siri (tie)Final talliesIn our final counts, Google Assistant and Alexa tied for the most total points, but Google narrowly edged out Alexa in the number of first-place finishes.
Siri, meanwhile, landed in third place in both measurements, though it was only slightly behind on total points. Overall, all of the virtual assistants were more capable than in previous editions of our shootout, revealing improvements across the industry.Each assistant received 3 points for first place in a category, 2 points for second and 1 point for third. AlexaGoogle AssistantSiriGeneral Knowledge1st (3 pts)2nd (2 pts)3rd (1 pt)Music & Podcasts2nd (2 pts)1st (3 pts)1st (3 pts)Entertainment1st (3 pts)2nd (2 pts)3rd (1 pt)Ordering Food2nd (2 pts)1st (3 pts)2nd (2 pts)Online Shopping1st (3 pts)1st (3 pts)2nd (2 pts)Communications2nd (2 pts)2nd (2 pts)1st (3 pts)Directions3rd (1 pt)1st (3 pts)2nd (2 pts)Smart Home1st (3 pts)1st (3 pts)2nd (2 pts)Availability3rd (1 pt)2nd (2 pts)1st (3 pts)Voice Recognition2nd (2 pt)1st (3 pts)3rd (1 pt)Extendability1st (3 pts)2nd (2 pts)2nd (2 pts)No.
Of First-Place Wins563Total Points262622There's still no one-size-fits-all winner among voice assistants. Your best pick is the one that succeeds at the categories most important to you and works with the devices you want, in the ecosystem you use. And with the rapid pace of innovation in all of these technologies, it's hard to go wrong by spending time with any of these voice assistants — even if none of them knows when exactly my bus will get here.Credit: Tom's Guide/Google/Amazon/Apple/Sonos. This whole investigation misses the point of the Google Assistant. By using only the Google Home, and not considering its capabilities on Android phones, you said it can't do things that it can. You said, for instance, that Google can't send a text. That's true on Google Home, but on a phone, where most people use it, Google most certainly can send texts.
I do it all the time. It can also send WhatsApp messages, open directions in Google Maps (or even other services if you so choose), or play songs from Spotify or Google Play Music if you just bothered to literally press a button in the assistant settings menu. Doing a comparison of virtual assistants is a great idea, but it makes no sense to compare Siri's capabilities on a phone to Google's and Alexa's on their speakers, especially if you specifically knock them for not being able to do phone-related tasks. They can do them, you just ignored that. Not to mention that your mention of availability for Google Assistant is laughable: you didn't even mention Android Wear, Android TV, Android Auto, or the suprisingly large number of speakers recently released from third parties with the Assistant built in (though you did mention that Alexa was on Sonos). This is just unacceptably lazy testing to submit to the public with such confidence as to call it the state of the three services at this time: it's not even close to representative of most users' experience. Wow.I understand that in the age of blogging product reviews are usually more opinion than scientific - but trying to pass off this random faceoff by a single person with a very limited view of reality as a rundown of the capabilities of all of the top AI platforms and their current state is more than a stretch - it's hysterical.As far as I can tell, you appear to rank Alexa higher than Google Assistant for what I can only imagine is the fact that you subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited but not Google Play Music, so Alexa was able to play Paint it Black.
I know that can't be the reason, and yet it is literally the only thing you listed as a feature that Alexa had over Google Assistant. They appear to match everywhere else except for the fact that Google was better at playing podcasts. Yeah.But my absolute favorite part of this review is the how Siri was able to win both the Communications AND the Directions category because of this incredible bit of brilliance.' Siri, though, wins the day here, by virtue of living on a phone'Yes, technically the device you chose to test Siri on happened to be a phone. An iPhone more specifically since it doesn't work on all phones, like, you know - the other guys do.Technically, they cannot do all of the things that Siri can do on an iPhone - but they also live on Android phones - and Fire devices where they can do many of those things as well. And despite the fact that you do mention it in other sections - you seem to have forgotten that Siri on other devices like the Apple TV, iPad and Apple watch CANNOT do all of those things.So it would seem that Siri wins two categories simply because you decided that for those particular categories the only determining factor is that you happen to own an iPhone, and that Siri does a lot more stuff on an iPhone than the other assistants can do.
On an iPhone.Now that's what I call solid testing skills.Congrats!. I also have to warn readers not to trust this review.
This is poorly researched and written at best, and amateur journalism at worst. To echo what the above posters wrote, you must always test software on comparable devices and invest in equally proprietary services for each to remain objective and be taken seriously.I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume this was quick and dirty test without the benefit of proper peer review. Here's some advice for next time (and other reviews in general):1) You cannot call yourself a serious tech reviewer without subscribing to all the brand services and testing integration with compatible products. That means you MUST subscribe to APM, GPM, and Apple Music to be objective, and perhaps the most popular service in this category BY FAR, Spotify. Also, test Google and Alexa by syncing them with android devices, not an iPhone. Actually that doesn't even matter if you do your research, since both the Google Home and Alexda apps can be used to setup their assistant with whatever music app you want.2) You cannot cannot cannot compare apples (home devives) to oranges (iPhones) and come up with anything but useless, biased results. Of course Siri is going to work better for making calls and texts on a phone compared to anything on a smart speaker.
Why not use Google and Alexa on a phone for this test instead? They are both available on any android phone with Marshmallow or higher. Even better, dock Siri serious points for not being able to do anything without a phone while the others can do all of that on a phone, plus some of it on home devices. This will of course change when HomePod arrives.Also, Google Home can absolutely send driving directions to any device using Google Maps with a Google account.3) The top 3 assistants are not Siri, Alexa, and Google, at least not definitively.