Amazon Alexa is flexible and compatible with many smart home devices but can be clunky and has no native smartphone support.

You could use the Dot as an alarm clock, or you could just use it to hear the morning headlines ("Alexa, tell me the news"). Google Home Mini: Like the Dot, Google Home Mini is an extension device.

Whether you have multiple smart home devices dotted around your home or just one hub that takes care of everything, you need to choose a virtual assistant to start creating your own smart home.

Alexa's chief rival, Google Assistant, has a few more languages under its belt. The Google Home speaker, powered by the Google Assistant, can speak English, German, Japanese, French, and Italian.