The big three voice assistants all have advantages and disadvantages but which ones perform when you need them is hard to figure out. To help out, we've tested Apple's Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant to see which one understands you best and can provide the best answers.
Here's how we measured the three assistants to see which one was the best on the market.
The Competitors
In this test, we'll be using the top three voice assistants on the market today—Siri on the iPhone, Alexa on the Amazon Echo, and Google Assistant using the Google Nest Mini.
Siri made its way onto the market in 2010 when it was released on Apple's App Store. Apple acquired it a couple of months later and started integrating it into phones.
Alexa first got its start in the Echo, a smart speaker developed by Amazon. It was first released in 2014 and is now integrated into a host of Amazon devices.
Google Assistant was first introduced into Android phones in 2016 with the Google Pixel phone. Now it's included on all new Android phones with version 6 or higher.
The Process
The method we used was to ask each voice assistant 25 simple questions and rate both the assistant's ability to understand the question and its response.
We asked the assistants questions that include several categories; local, music, entertainment, food, and communication.
Each assistant was given a score of 1-10 for both context and response and all questions were added up to find the ultimate winner.
Siri vs. Alexa vs. Google Assistant Questions
Here are the questions we asked the voice assistants.
Local
1. Where is the nearest restaurant to me?
2. Is it going to rain today?
3. What is the weather today?
4. How is the traffic on (X) road?
5. What time does the nearest target open?
Music
6. Play Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan.
7. Play the artist Mariah Carey.
8. Play the album Abbey Road.
9. Play 90s grunge.
10. Play some new music.
Entertainment
11. Who won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2004?
12. Who played Dorothy in the original Wizard of Oz?
13. What movies are out right now?
14. What year did The Shining come out?
15. What movie is this quote from: I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
Food
16. How many grams are in one ounce?
17. Find me an Italian recipe.
18. Find a recipe for chicken parmesan.
19. What's the internal cooking temperature for pork loin?
20. How do I make soy sauce?
Communication
21. Call Mom.
22. Text Mom "I'll be home soon."
23. Compose a new email.
24. Send a reminder to call Mom on Sunday.
25. Add a new contact.
The Winner Is...
After tallying up the totals for all five categories the winner is Alexa with a total of 483 points. Google Assistant came in a close second with 461 points and Siri trails behind in third with an underwhelming 447 points.
The biggest difference for positions is Siri's restriction to Apple phones while the other two were individual devices.
When asking Siri certain questions it would pull up the top three sites for you to navigate to. The other platforms would not only give you a site to check out, but would then verbally give you an answer.
Siri would force you to go back into Safari to search results to find your answer. Almost always, the sites were relevant to the question. Siri was also the worst when it came to answering questions it didn't know. Instead of verbally saying it didn't have the capability, Siri would just show an error message.
Alexa provided an incredible amount of feedback and information. When asked about the traffic on a specific road, it gave back general advice and then went into details on which areas of the road were suffering more delays than others.
Although Google Assistant gave really good answers, they were very short. The device wasn't able to think of additional information that would help someone ask a question like, "Is it going to rain today?"
It was clear that Amazon's Alexa is the most helpful voice assistant in the battle of the big three.
Amazon's Alexa Reigns Supreme
When you're looking for the best voice assistant for your home you need to stick with Alexa.
Not only does it provide answers verbally to most of your questions, but it will also anticipate what you might want to know on top of your questions.