- Posted on
Sat Aug 05, 2017 12:29 pm
-
roussell
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- Posts: 1108
- Joined: Aug 18, 2008
- Location: Alabama
If you're ***just/primarily*** looking for HA-related control, it's gonna be hard to beat homebridge and Siri. I've tried Alexa, Siri and Google (returned the Google, because it wasn't sufficiently "better" than the Dot to justify the price delta). For general queries about various topics, Google is the winner, with Siri and Alexa tied for 2nd (sometimes a distant 2nd).
The problem is the lack of official integration with Indigo; until one or more of them are integrated officially, the solutions will be pieced-together attempts that depend on some existing opening/flaw/work-around. Jay and Autolog have done some very cool things with the Alexa-Hue bridge, and I don't want to discount their work --it's terribly appreciated-- but at the end of the day, Alexa thinks its just a bunch of lights and that hampers what you can do with it. Forget telling Alexa to set the temperature of the downstairs HVAC to 72 degrees, which is easy with Homebridge/Siri, or scripting a two way conversation (Alexa, Tell Indigo to make coffee. OK, How many cups? 4. OK, making 4 cups of coffee). That type of customization is only available with the integration that a skill provides.
To be fair, the Siri integration is a third-party effort as well, but the underlying exploits expose more features than do the Hue-bridge. I'm not sure if the two-way thing is scriptable yet with Homebridge either, but I'll let you know in early 2018 when my pre-ordered Spinn coffee maker arrives! Also, because of Apple's policy (which Jay has noted in previous posts), I don't know if we'll ever have official integration with Siri. Perhaps Apple will change their position after the Apple Marshmallow/Toilet paper roll/iHome is released. Other packages are doing that exact thing today however, with Alexa and a skill.
I maintain the stance that Homebridge/Siri has the best integration with Indigo today, but I think that Alexa holds the most potential, provided that an official skill is released at some point, or you develop your own. The price-point of the Dot is hard to beat, and the platform is the most open of the three, though I would expect Google to catch-up on the openness after they figure out all of the monetizing vectors.
Terry