Synchronizing Livolo smart switches with popular and helpful voice assistants from Amazon and Google provides an incredible brilliant home experience. By saying “Hey Google” or “Alexa”, we can control our lights, plugs, switches, blinds, etc. through our voice. In this article, we explain how to do it in a simple way, what things we can do, and the characteristics of these two voice assistants.
What is a voice assistant?
A voice assistant is a technological device that connects via the Internet to an artificial intelligence capable of recognizing the human natural language and responding to the questions and requests that we make by voice. This system is normally integrated into a small speaker that also integrates a microphone, through which it receives our voice waves and interprets them to answer our questions.
The two best-known voice assistants are Google’s, known as the Google Home voice assistant, and Amazon’s, known as Alexa. Although there is still a lot to be perfected, these two AIs are capable of answering simple questions and interacting correctly with other devices connected to the network.
The latter is what we want to focus on. Synchronizing Livolo smart switches with either of these two smart assistants is possible thanks to the fact that the devices are connected to the Wi-Fi network through our HUB. Therefore, just by connecting our Livolo home account with our assistant, we can use it to give instructions and control our devices with our voice.
Synchronize Livolo smart switches with a voice assistant. What can we do?
Livolo switches turn any home into a Smart Home quickly, easily, and without work. We can turn lights on and off, raise the blinds, create experiences, control plugs, etc. using our mobile phones or a tablet. But what if we could do all this without having to touch anything, just with our voice?
This is what we achieve by synchronizing Livolo smart switches with a voice assistant, controlling our entire house through simple commands. In addition, you can also give individual commands such as “turn on the light in the living room” or “dim the light in the bedroom by 50%.
Sync Livolo smart switches with a voice assistant
To sync your Livolo switches with the Google Assistant or Amazon Echo, you just need to connect your Simon account to them. Doing it is extremely simple and does not take more than a couple of minutes, we are going to see how to do it in each case.
Google Home
To connect our Livolo home account with the Google Home voice assistant, we must use the “Google Home” application, which is the one with which we control all the options related to the Google assistant. These are the steps you will need to follow:
Open the “Google Home” application and press the “+” button, located in the upper left corner.
On the next screen, we click on “Configure device”.
Next, in the “Works with Google” section, click on “Have you configured any device?”
On the next screen, we use the magnifying glass, located in the upper right corner, to search for Livolo switches.
We press the corresponding option and enter the same username and password that we have used in the Livolo home app. If everything is correct, we will already have all our devices synchronized with our voice assistant.
Amazon Echo (Alexa)
Now we are going to do the same procedure, but for the Amazon Echo voice assistant, better known as Alexa. To synchronize Livolo smart switches we must follow these steps:
We open the “Alexa” application. In the menu located in the upper left corner, click on “Skills and Games”.
We search for Livolo switches using the magnifying glass in the upper right corner.
Click on the corresponding result and click on “Allow its use”.
We enter the username and password of our Livolo home account.
On the next screen, we click “Allow”.
Finally, we press the “Detect devices” button so that Alexa discovers all the ones we have at home.
Which assistant do I choose? Google Home or Alexa?
Both voice assistants are the most widely used today, and both work perfectly with Simon iO devices. Which one should you choose? Well, it goes a bit to your liking, since they are quite similar and only differ in small things:
● In the section on a pure voice assistant, there is a technical tie. Both are able to answer the same type of questions quite efficiently, although these should be (for the time being) simple and concrete. Alexa has a more natural and friendly voice and Google Home has a more robotic and futuristic voice.
● Since, after all, they use a loudspeaker to reproduce their answers, we must take into account the sound quality. In this section, the different Amazon Echo models offer superior sound quality.
● The two wizards offer a large number of possibilities in connection with other devices. Here again, there is a technical tie, both comply perfectly with everything we need.
If you have an Android smartphone, then the Google Home assistant may be more suitable as it seamlessly integrates with all the apps in its ecosystem.
In terms of integration with a smart home, Alexa is a tad above Google Home, as we find some specific functions.
Finally, we want to talk about the price. Google Home has two different models, the cheapest version, Google Home Mini, and Google Home, the most complete. On the other hand, there are several models of Alexa, also having a cheaper version, the Amazon Echo Dot, and the Amazon Echo Plus, the most complete version.
If you want to have a total smart home, sync your Livolo smart switches with your favorite voice assistant. It’s simple, fast, and completes the experience of having a smart home, which you can control simply with your voice.
