Comments
[deleted] t1_j1ul48k wrote
The fact that Alexa is pretty shit should surprise absolutely no one.
benito_fusilloni t1_j1um6tq wrote
Honestly Siri is probably the better voice assistant I’ve used still. However, I still don’t find any of them that useful.
monchota t1_j1um977 wrote
Test of what? The three people in the world who actually want a digital assistant to talk to. New flash, most of us don't. We want assistants that just do what we need and don't needs to to talk to it all the time.
AyatollahDan t1_j1ungd7 wrote
I can't actually remember the last time I used one. I do remember the last time I dug into my registry to kill Cortana.
Ranryu t1_j1uo6c4 wrote
This is the first time I've seen anyone mention Bixby. What a shitty feature and waste of a button
Independent-Bear-604 t1_j1uotf4 wrote
Turned off voice assistant like Siri from the beginning. This is just a feature mostly for reviewers, I don’t need the phone to always be listening to me and mistakenly wake up.
Jackleme t1_j1uoubp wrote
tbh, on my pixel phone I have found the assistant to be immensely useful.
There are 3 big features: Call screen, hold for me, and on screen menu navigation.
I have my call screen set to screen any number that isn't in my contacts. The assistant answers the phone, and if it is a known fingerprinted scam call, it tells them I am not interested, and hangs up. If it is a person talking that it doesn't recognize, it passes them through.
Hold for me basically sits on hold for you, and tells you when the person picks up on the other end.
On screen menu navigation is when you call a place where you have to push 1, 2, etc, and the phone just lists out the options on screen... it is very nice.
​
I also use the routines to program a lot of stuff in my house. I also wear a cpap mask, so being able to tell the assistant to shut off the light in 2 minutes as I am trying to get my mask adjusted and my stuff sorted is REALLY nice.
​
I do, however, find touch controls for things like music on my buds way better then asking the assistant to do something.
overall, I find it to be more useful then annoying. I also am a HUGE fanboy of the pixel phones... they aren't the best hardware, and not necessarily the best software... but man is the software just easy to use and not a pain to deal with.
[deleted] t1_j1uox5b wrote
You just wait a few years for someone to plug ChatGPT into those voice models.
Sweaty_Two901 t1_j1uoxu7 wrote
Isn’t this just an award for the least crappy voice assistant? They all suck! No one should be giving out awards to any of them.
bakerzdosen t1_j1uqbu0 wrote
Unsurprisingly, the word “privacy” is not found in the article’s body text.
That to me is my first (second, and third…) priority in a product that is always listening.
CPargermer t1_j1ut3oy wrote
I have Google Hubs across my house and use Assistant frequently to get outdoor temperature, turn off lights, set timers, play music, and sometimes try to get answer to questions (though that's more hit or miss).
[deleted] t1_j1uxqge wrote
You’re such an enjoyable piece of shit. I bet people love being around you.
reinfected t1_j1v0haj wrote
I'm not saying you're wrong to be concerned about privacy with these products, but I think that's moreso just evidence that this isn't a product for you.
For everyone else who already acknowledges that their phone is already the privacy nightmare you're describing, complete with microphones and cameras, this product is pretty useful in home automation.
bakerzdosen t1_j1v4vbp wrote
I can agree to that.
I simply trust Apple more than I trust Google (or Amazon or Samsung or Microsoft) with my private data.
And really, when it comes right down to it, I don’t trust Apple.
But with that said, yeah, Google’s assistant is superior to Siri or Alexa (both of which I’ve put through their paces.) There are a lot of things Google does better than Siri for sure. The problem is that after the novelty those things has worn off, I found I don’t actually use them in my normal day-to-day life. The things I do (turn on/off lights, run a scene, play music, time/weather request, timer/alarm, call or text someone) can be done by any voice assistant equally well. They all work well most of the time, and they all fail at seemingly puzzlingly simple requests on occasion.
So yeah, perhaps voice assistants aren’t exactly for me, but again, for me, Siri has struck a decent balance between privacy and functionality.
As always though, YMMV.
Leiryn t1_j1v933i wrote
And it's still trash
_Connor t1_j1vb1yo wrote
Does anyone actually use these? I've been on iPhone since 3GS and I have literally never used Siri.
[deleted] t1_j1vde6q wrote
It's not even close.
crizzy_mcawesome t1_j1vekuo wrote
Imo this test was kinda rigged to be in google assistants favor. A true test should include different accents, language, support with iot devices, their speed and the device itself not from the phone app
jdbrew t1_j1vqz6n wrote
I don’t care which one is best, I don’t want to fucking use them. Talking to a device feels like such a forced user interaction
cjc323 t1_j1vsac4 wrote
i'm glad he's dping well but the overall value i get from his reviews and content is minimal.
Capt-Birdman t1_j1vskly wrote
Personal opinion? Did you even see the tests? Its clearly the best one of the 4.
punio4 t1_j1vt1gn wrote
I did, but MKBHD is far from an authority that needs to be quoted by other articles with pompous headlines.
Google Assistant Takes the crown beating Bixby and Siri in Voice Assistant Test
punio4 t1_j1vt408 wrote
I've had more success with Bixby with a lot of things than I did with Google Assistant.
dracovich t1_j1w04aw wrote
I think it's usefulness is completely oversold, it's nice to hvae the wireless smart home capabilities but tbh i much prefer to just use buttons on my phone to control my lights/ac, rather than talking to a speaker.
It's nice when driving etc though, like i'm in a foreign country now and earlier needed to find a gas station, i could just ask it to plot a route to the nearest gas station.
kimonczikonos t1_j1w3b5t wrote
That or set up alarm, i think most useful feature is to set reminder about email. If you are in mail app ask Siri to remind your about email, it will pop up at your desired time.
pancake_ransom t1_j1w7g4i wrote
Bixby is the worst
axis1331 t1_j1w8oxr wrote
Found Lee Jae-yong's reddit account.
simpn_aint_easy t1_j1w9awt wrote
Who the hell is Bixby?
anoldradical t1_j1waadd wrote
We are a house divided (by operating system) but one thing we all agree on is that Google Assistant is miles better than Siri. It's not close.
MakeVio t1_j1wav8u wrote
Supposedly Bixby excels at usability for impaired/disabled. As it has direct control over the phones functions.
Still trash though
anoldradical t1_j1wbg38 wrote
Constantly. I use Google Assistant dozens of times every single day. Set timer, how old is whoever, what's this times that, turn off the christmas lights, where's my phone, shuffle my thumbs up playlist, play thunderstorm sounds, set the alarm for 6am, call Cuyahoga Falls Home Depot, navigate to the Mentor Branch, remind me to order triple squares at 6pm, remind me to get milk next time I'm at Giant Eagle, which president's were assassinated in office, what's the market cap of Microsoft, set the ecobee to 71 degrees, turn off the fan, what's the forecast for the day, what time does Acme close?
I could go on and on and on. I do most of these things without interacting with the phone in any way. In fact, most of the time, it's sitting on the piano or something and not even near me.
Ghstfce t1_j1wcisg wrote
I use the Google Assistant all the time. Setting timers, starting navigation when I hop on my motorcycle, setting reminders for things, having my phone call/text someone when my hands aren't free. My daughter uses the Google Home Max all the time, getting facts on the "animal of the day", getting it to play music for dance parties, hell, she even used it to "call Santa": it was "Santa" and he asked her questions to choose one thing or the other and they "wrote a song together" based on her answers.
Ghstfce t1_j1wctkw wrote
"I'm sorry, I can't help you with that."
huey88 t1_j1wdgcw wrote
I use Bixby on my Fold 4. It works for what i need it for, which is usually just setting an alarm
verrius t1_j1we476 wrote
I have a couple of smart devices, and a couple of the features are useful. Being able to shout "where's my phone?!" and have it start just ringing is super convenient. Being able to set quick timers, especially when I'm cooking, and don't have a free hand is nice. And I've set up one smart light switch in my garage; the switch is in a spot that's not near any doors (its technically over a workbench), and its difficult for my wife to reach, so adding voice controls to it makes it actually useful.
anoldradical t1_j1wh1vo wrote
Jesus, if you don't find someone who has spent his entire life reviewing every single product, while also being platform agnostic and owning multiple devices, who do you trust? Besides how is his conclusion controversial anyhow? Isn't it widely agreed upon that Google Assistant is better than Siri?
barrystrawbridgess t1_j1wh98c wrote
Did you want to order a pack of Amazon Basics AA batteries, 8 pack for $7.99. I can add it to your shopping cart? Do you want me to add it?
alanamil t1_j1whshx wrote
Love google, hate alexa, I will ask alexa something and she of course doesn't know that, turn and ask google on my phone and google can answer it.
partiallypro t1_j1wjhml wrote
Regardless of this, it is shocking how little voice assistants have gotten better over the past 5 years. There are still things to this day that Cortana did better (when it existed) than Google Assistant does today. It's kind of sad that Microsoft killed off Cortana, especially now that it could have potentially tapped into ChatGPT or similar.
morgichor t1_j1wmjb5 wrote
Siri is trash compared to Alexa outside when not in synthetic conditions. Alexa with the far field microphone of echo devices is actually amazing. Siri is straight up trash.
Jjhammer31 t1_j1wsktg wrote
It's cool if you're lazy like me
[deleted] t1_j1wtw0i wrote
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JustHanginInThere t1_j1wuqy6 wrote
Samsung's attempt at the voice assistant.
[deleted] t1_j1wwu0f wrote
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-becausereasons- t1_j1wx1e1 wrote
Let's face it, they are all hot-trash.
sobanz t1_j1wyb1c wrote
til they start getting kpop stars to do the voice over and they control the entire market share
[deleted] t1_j1wzaqn wrote
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[deleted] t1_j1wzel7 wrote
currentscurrents t1_j1x2yup wrote
If only the compute requirements weren't so onerous.
But really, voice assistant needs AI to be really useful. I don't want just a way to set timers, I want Jarvis.
uterinejellyfish t1_j1x6j9h wrote
I would disagree. It's okay, but not as good as Google Assistant.
TheDemonHobo t1_j1x6mao wrote
Anyone else click just to learn who the fuck Bixby is?
TheDemonHobo t1_j1x6sy8 wrote
They could be using Sam!? But they chose Bixby?!
BlackDiamondDee t1_j1x9aa1 wrote
Where Alexa?
Ranryu t1_j1xconl wrote
That never occurred to me but damn, you're right. That's a big missed opportunity
lebastss t1_j1xcvsa wrote
It gets even better with pixel buds. I never realized how useful ai can be until I switched from apple
Lithl t1_j1xedcy wrote
They got spooked when the internet sexualized her.
Lithl t1_j1xeq5f wrote
Timers, lights (it's a high tech Clapper, lol), and controlling the video stream to my TV (next episode, fast forward, etc.) are the three things I use most often with Assistant. I've got a Google Home for it, so no pulling out my phone and hands free (great when I'm using timers for cooking).
I also use Assistant's call screening, but I don't think there's any AI involved with that, just playing a recorded message to the caller and voice-to-text for their response (unless they hang up, which they usually do).
Lithl t1_j1xf06a wrote
That's adorable
zippyzoodles t1_j1xfghh wrote
Microsoft Bob and Clippy say hello.
Lithl t1_j1xftas wrote
Because they're entirely different things.
ChatGPT is a machine learning model designed to produce the appearance of human-written text.
The only ML involved in any of these digital assistants is figuring out WTF your query is. There is no ML behind the actual responses; they're all either web search results or pre-programmed output.
nikicampos t1_j1xgrj3 wrote
Who the hell is Bixby?
Bobala t1_j1xhdqj wrote
I use Google Assistant when I want to know some random fact from the internet. I use Siri when I want to control the lights in our house. For some reason, Google is garbage at that task.
Profitsofdooom t1_j1xhkws wrote
I have zero problem using Google to control Hue, Govee, and smart outlets.
Profitsofdooom t1_j1xhvqc wrote
So many devices in my house can be controlled with Google Assistant that I've also started using it for other things.
sephy009 t1_j1xj4z9 wrote
That's the best part.
TheDemonHobo t1_j1xkx5o wrote
She was hot! That’s why they should have used her!
tempreffunnynumber t1_j1xu4rm wrote
Eastern-Mix9636 t1_j1xuvyw wrote
This is super weird. This is a headline…taken from a post…written entirely off an MKBHD video?
Is this the norm?
opticsnake t1_j1xwa10 wrote
Greetings fellow Akron-ite!
gk99 t1_j1xwttb wrote
The fucking thing couldn't even consistently send me notifications when my Samsung washer was finished running. Let alone anything I've asked it to do in the first months of owning a Galaxy watch before giving up on it entirely because it's a useless POS and the means of setting up Alexa and Google on it instead are far too convoluted. Fortunately, even Samsung has given up on it and their watches now include Google Assistant.
punio4 t1_j1xxqpc wrote
Look, I'm not shilling for Bixby.
I have had multiple issues with Google assistant where it couldn't set timers, kept timing out, wouldn't play Spotify on android Auto etc.
These issues would randomly pop in and fix themselves, which means that Google is fucking with it server side.
In these instances I've used Bixby as a fallback which worked every time without a fault.
Just my experience.
But frankly I consider all assistants shit as they only work as advertised in commercials. And speaking a non-native language to my phone is cringe as fuck.
Ill-Bat-207 t1_j1y235s wrote
It just wins at the only thing I care about .
Blog_Pope t1_j1y3ly6 wrote
I use voice assistants fairly often, I check the weather every morning, in the car I DJ and send/receive text messages via CarPlay. All kitchen timers are voice assistants. Need a quick conversion while cooking, ask how many grams in a cup of flour.
It’s like an ATM, there’s very little backsliding.
anupsidedownpotato t1_j1y4fai wrote
It always has been. You can have full on running conversations with it. It remembers stuff you say so you can ask follow up questions. Siri is like talking to a brick wall
quantumfucker t1_j1y7cm6 wrote
I really just hate that they used a whole button for it.
[deleted] t1_j1yd92o wrote
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Maakrios t1_j1yejso wrote
I have a google home, it either cant recognize half the stuff i tell it to do and some are literally stuff you wrote about or the bitch literally does the microphone ping and just turns off.
If you actually use it daily than we both know how many issues there are. I bought a google home specifically because i heard the assistant was actually smart, buy the times it gets right/wrong are like 70/30. Admitedly yes all of em are shit and the others are even worse if this is the best… But yeah, usable daily without frustrations? Hell nah, its buggy as hell.
Ohh and does everyones google home ping his mic like every hour or so? She just randomly starts listening, sometimes when there is total silence in the room for some reason.
Formal-Cut-334 t1_j1ygtw7 wrote
If you have hate in your heart let it out.
frapawhack t1_j1ylkc9 wrote
Siri is a joke. Considering a return to Android after iPhone
Silencer306 t1_j1ypp0g wrote
Once I get what I want, I just ignore whatever garbage Alexa speaks after that. It’s just background noise
microm3gas t1_j1yru40 wrote
That’s the way reviews work. You need to also think and determine what’s best for you
SpecialNose9325 t1_j1ytn9b wrote
But for some reason its the most popular among the tech illitrate who just want smart home stuff. My dad has multiple alexas and alexa thermostats to control his home lighting. Shit works 40% of the time at best.
SpecialNose9325 t1_j1ytru8 wrote
My galaxy buds come with Bixby Voice Recognition. Simply doesnt work. Ever.
SpecialNose9325 t1_j1yui00 wrote
Reviewers are biased towards things they like. Watch a review of the same device by multiple reviewers and its clear where the biases are. Its upto you to decide whose views align with yours.
MKBHD emphasizes on Camera. Linus emphasizes on practicality. FlossyCarter emphasizes on in hand feel. UrAvgConsumer emphasizes on battery life.
SpecialNose9325 t1_j1yvf04 wrote
In the video ...
Profitsofdooom t1_j1z1t09 wrote
It's probably 80/20 in favor of Google. My most common missed phrase is "vacuum the living area." Google thinks I said "back in" sometimes, usually when the TV is on too.
There are plenty of things I have tried that have surprised me as being possible too. You just have to figure out what the phrase is.
boife1 t1_j1z1ws2 wrote
They purposely nerf Siri not sure why
jorboyd t1_j1zih5u wrote
I read this headline and knew that it was just a regurgitation of the MKBHD video I watched last week lol
OneEightActual t1_j204t5g wrote
Sites like this are 25% summarizing YouTube content, 25% summarizing Reddit threads, and 50% plagiarizing other sites just like them.
terminalblue t1_j21t4vj wrote
there was one time I was biking and I asked google to "play 'caught in still life" by Vaults" and it replied
"Okay, here is a costco wifi lightbulb"
It almost always gets it right for me though
punio4 t1_j1uk4dv wrote
TL;DR it's MKBHD's personal opinion. Trash article