What is a Voice Assistant?

A voice assistant is a device that allows you to interact with your computer, tablet, or other home devices by using your voice. It may also receive and interpret commands to provide information or perform basic tasks. You can talk to it like you would another person and get responses back about anything you'd like to know. A popular example of this is Siri for iPhones which were released in 2011. However, there are several others such as Cortana for Windows devices, Google Now for Android phones, and even Amazon Echo, which has speakers that do more than just play music. Voice assistants may not be perfect yet, but they're getting better every day. They offer a great technological way to run applications for things like lighting control and find information by speaking a command. This is done via a speaker, microphone, and input system connected to the internet. They are designed to recognize speech from a user, then interpret those words as an instruction to perform some kind of task or action. This could mean creating a meeting in Outlook, searching online for information about the Eiffel tower, opening a smart garage door, or calling up friends from your contact list. Voice assistants can also respond verbally to confirm that the command given has been followed. Home automation helps us live more comfortably with a hands-free experience. Contact Angelo Tech & A/V today to learn more!
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How is a Voice Assistant Used?

There are two main categories of voice assistants, personal assistants, and smart home appliances. Personal assistants are designed to handle the user's everyday tasks. They can be used for purchasing items online, booking events or flights, turning off lights in the house when you are home, adjusting your smart thermostat when it is dark outside, and more. There are many apps on the market that offer control over these types of features using a Bluetooth connection that helps contribute to a more hands-free lifestyle. 

​Voice assistants will help monitor what is going on around your house by reading you information about certain things in your environment and relaying the information. Smart home appliances are a great way to help monitor what's going on around a house  or business without even having to be present. For example, some models can be set up so that their sensors read information about certain things in the environment such as temperature or humidity levels, and then send this data back to a smartphone via WiFi. This allows us as humans to spend less time fiddling with gadgets and more time relaxing in the comfort of our homes.

Are Voice Assistants worth it?

There are three main reasons why voice assistants, such as Alexa, are worth the cost. One is because you can use them for nearly anything ranging from monitoring smart doorbells to an entire home theater. The second is that they also take up less space in your home. And the best part is, they are becoming more affordable and available to consumers. Amazon Echo Devices were  first made available in 2014, with the quality and range of functions improving drastically since then. This means that anyone with an appropriate device could easily automate features in their home with great savings. For starters, they can react to vocal cues and operate seamlessly, but there are more reasons than that. Voice assistants can do so much for you and your household, such as set and control alarms and reminders, set timers, answer quick questions about the weather, save money by controlling lights, or even play music from your home audio system by following basic voice commands. In short, yes. Voice assistants are worth the price because you can use them conveniently to do all sorts of tasks without taking a phone out of your pocket or having to stop what you are currently doing. Automate commands that you can use while cooking, or if you are already in bed to improve the comfort of living. Angelo Tech & A/V is here to program and connect your voice assistants to help make your home automation suit your needs.

How Much do Voice Assistants Cost?

As of right now, the cheapest audio assistant is the Echo Dot, which requires an app to set up. It costs about $30. At the other end of the spectrum, some more extensive devices can retail between $200 and $350. Other great alternatives are devices like Google Assistant devices and Amazon's Alexa, which are very reasonably priced. Combined with a variety of apps that serve different purposes on your device, voice assistants can be extremely affordable, and serve their purpose beyond their initial retail cost. Voice assistants obviously can't completely control all the appliances in your kitchen but they do provide helpful assistance in day-to-day life when it comes to completing tasks. For example, helping make dinner reservations or controlling audio and lighting while cooking. They also have many other uses so it's up to you how you want to utilize them. Angelo Tech & AV is here to help bring the vision to life.

How to set up a Voice Assistant

We are happy to help you with setting up any voice assistants to perform automated tasks for you in your home. Home automation helps to increase our comfort with hands-free comfortability, and can even help us save money. Angelo Tech & A/V has all the details available for setting up your new voice assistant, but if you don't feel confident in being able to set up your own home automation voice assistant and its tasks, then please contact us.
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1) Unpack Your Device 
2) Plug in your Device 
3) Download the designated app on your Phone or Tablet  
4) Create an Account via the app on your device under the Apps menu 
5) Login after downloading the app 
6) Connect your Voice Assistant Unit to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, depending on the device.

​First, you need to select the voice assistant. You may or may not have one on your device or you can go through an app store and download one for free. Some popular voice assistants are Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google Assistant. Once you install the designated app for your voice assistant of choice on your device then it will help guide the user to set up their voice assistant account by following the appropriate prompts. Updates will also show notifications when there's new content available or announcements about potential updates or changes in service depending on which services the individual has connected to their account.

How to use a Voice Assistant

It is as easy as a few basic commands - having a grasp on a few of the most commonly used commands will help you to get going much more quickly and smoothly, which can be exponentially helpful if it's something that can interrupt phone calls or work, such as setting the thermostat. You'll also want to make sure to know how to connect the device to other smart technology within the home or business. That is why our expert audiovisual consultants are here to provide help in setting up any system of automation that you can think of to help improve your lifestyle.

For instance, Google Home is designed to be an always-on microphone that is listens for commands. However, when in the proximity of it or when activating Google Home with a voice command, the device will send speech recognition data to servers for any voice commands received so that it can carry out the task at hand. You can manage Google account settings in “My Account” or through the Android Settings menu on the device. There are even options for Bluetooth security cameras which enables users to watch live feeds from home cameras remotely during their absence, which helps improve the safety and security of a property.

Contact Angelo Tech & A/V today!

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