When time is short and you’re preoccupied, voice assistants can help you find answers fast, which could be useful in an emergency or when checking the security status of your home. But today’s voice assistants, even with all their conversational AI upgrades like Alexa Plus, don’t always get things right or have the capabilities you may expect.
That’s why I’ve been testing Alexa, Siri and Gemini for Home (now replacing Google Assistant), to see how they deal with home-security questions and how helpful their answers are. From power outages to calling 911, here’s how they performed.
Read more: The Best Smart Displays for Interactive Voice Assistants
Where should I put a fire extinguisher?
Voice assistants like Alexa are good at tapping into information about protecting your home from fires, and are particularly knowledgeable about fire extinguishers. They readily supplied me with information not only on where to put them (kitchens and garages, where many fires start), but also how high to mount them on a wall and what not to do with an extinguisher (put it over the stovetop, for example).
What are the fire alarm laws in my state?
This is a useful question when you’re installing or upgrading any kinds of smoke detectors in your home, whether a single device or a DIY security system. I found certain voice assistants were better than others at this question.
Gemini for Home was the most useful, tapping into a government site and giving specific information on exactly where the state required homes to install smoke alarms. In fact, Gemini’s summary was so long first-time users might find all the info overwhelming, which is why it may be helpful to use a web search for a question like this.
Siri gave some helpful info, but was less reliable about tapping into state laws. The original Alexa was the least helpful here, while Alexa Plus only gave a vague, mostly unhelpful summary about my state rules.
Is my garage door closed?
This question is for those who have smart garage door add-ons which work with Alexa and Gemini for Home (not as often with Siri). It can quickly answer questions about whether or not the door was closed after everyone left for the morning. If you don’t have a smart garage door controller, you can find retrofits for well under $100 that work with most modern garage doors.
Is the front door locked?
With a smart lock added to your front door, you can ask Alexa, Gemini for Home or Siri at any time if the door is locked, unlocked or even if it was left open. Even when you’re out and about, you can use the app to lock or unlock it as needed. Plus, many smart locks have autolock features so if you forget to lock them, they’ll lock themselves after a few minutes.
Is there a power outage in my area?
It can be hard to tell if the power is out only to your home (which could indicate an electrical problem you need to handle) or if it’s out for the whole neighborhood.
Again, Gemini for Home did the best here, giving me the number of outages my power company was experiencing (although it didn’t agree with the current online outage map), if any were in my neighborhood, and providing me with a link to my local power utility to see the latest outage news.
Siri followed up with a similar link — while Alexa thought I wanted a power supply company 3,000 miles away. Alexa Plus was more helpful here, offering information similar to Gemini about an absence of outages, although instead of giving a summary of statewide outages, Alex Plus warned of a planned outage near my neighborhood in the next couple of days. Unfortunately, this outage had already happened — last week. Voice assistants often experience delays or late info depending on where they’re pulling information from.
Is my security system armed?
If your voice assistant can connect to your home security system (both Alexa and Gemini for Home usually can), then you can ask them if your security system is armed or not. That’s useful if you aren’t at home and someone is making a surprise visit to your house, or if you are arming your system manually and can’t remember if it’s on or not.
Who left the house recently?
This one is for more advanced, conversational AI services that can review your home-security videos and even recognize faces with the right subscriptions. Google already has these capabilities with Gemini’s voice assistant, and this feature is coming with Alexa Plus. Siri’s expected AI update may include similar features, although it’s not entirely clear what direction Apple will take. Even third-party startups are starting to offer these services.
With this kind of AI, you can ask who left the house to get an idea of when loved ones may have departed, and bring up a security video to see where they may have gone. It can be very useful, especially if you live with elderly relatives and need to keep an eye on them. You could also ask other questions like, “Where did I leave my keys?” or, “Did any strangers come to the door today?” and so on.
Can my voice assistant call 911 for me?
It depends on the voice assistant. Currently, Siri and Gemini for Home can dial 911 for you — which is helpful if you’re really short on time and your hands are shaky. In fact, Gemini has been known to get overeager and call 911 when instructed not to. Alexa cannot call 911, unless you pay for the Alexa Emergency Assist feature, which lets you call emergency services. (The feature will cost you $6 per month.)
Does adding conversational AI features improve responses to safety questions?
Not really. In some cases, the additional conversational abilities expand where voice assistants pull information, which (especially for Alexa) helped them become more accurate or give more complete answers. However, the conversational abilities don’t add much here expect to make voice assistants long-winded — although it is nice to be able to ask follow-up questions to clarify details.
Keep in mind, like chatbots, these new AI voice assistants are a little too eager to confirm beliefs or claim to know things they do not. That’s one reason I kept getting out-of-date information from them, which I had to double-check to see what was wrong. Voice assistants do better with direct home-safety commands.
Bottom line, Google’s voice assistant had the slight edge for home-safety and security questions, but all the voice assistants occasionally got things wrong, gave delayed information or weren’t as helpful as they could have been.
For more info, read up on the best tips to deter burglars, the spots to never put your home security devices and security checks you should make when you arrive at your Airbnb.
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