Why Smart Speakers Are Your Gateway to the Smart Home

Smart speaker owners can also tap into thousands of free or inexpensive applications that range from amusing but frivolous (a Shakespearean Insult Generator) to potentially life-saving.

For instance, Ask My Buddy will call and send a text to alert a family member or another contact when the user needs help but is unable to call on their own.

“The smart speakers we've tested ranged in versatility from good to excellent,” says Elias Arias, who heads CR’s smart speaker testing program. “But new users do have to navigate a learning curve.”

While “natural language” commands typically work well, some apps require you to use specific phrases. Users must also begin their command or question with a keyword or a phrase, such as “Alexa” or “Hey, Google” for the device to respond.

Of course, smart speakers can also play music, and 68 percent of the people who own one use it to do that. But a majority of smart speakers tested by Consumer Reports don’t sound great.

If audio quality is important to you, you can pay a premium for a smart speaker that sounds good on its own, such as the Sonos One or the Amazon Echo Studio.

Or, as an alternative, you can pair an inexpensive smart speaker like the Amazon Echo Dot or the Google Home Mini to a speaker you already own, or to one of the high-scoring nonsmart speakers in our ratings. Some of these smart speakers are very affordable; for $50, the Amazon Echo Dot doesn't provide great audio quality but delivers Alexa functionality just as well as more expensive models.

Either way, when you tell your digital assistant to play some Johnny Cash, the Man in Black will sound the way he should.

Linking your smart devices to one another can enable them to do even more. You could, for instance, have your smart front-door lock automatically send a message to your smart thermostat to turn down the heat each time you leave home to save money on your energy bill.

To guide members in their purchase decisions in this rapidly growing category of products, Consumer Reports now tests smart-home devices, including speakers, video doorbells, and door locks.

“We look at how they perform their primary function but also whether the smart functionality actually improves the overall user experience,” says CR’s Bernie Deitrick, the engineer who oversees our home security camera testing.

To control those devices through your smart speaker, each component you add needs to be compatible with your personal digital assistant. Many smart products work with multiple digital assistants, but Amazon’s Alexa has a sizable lead over the competition; it can control more than 145,000 smart-home devices. Google Assistant, by contrast, works with more than 50,000 smart-home products, while Apple says that Siri controls "hundreds" of devices.