re: Amazon Echo vs Google Home - Which is best?

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For this stuff to matter it needs to be a much better out of the box experience for the average person. My wife doesn't want to install an app, she just wants to say "Alexa Play Scandal" and have it automagically know you're talking to the FireTV and have it play the next episode from whatever source she was watching it on last, whether that's the PSVue, DVR/On Demand, NetFlix or Plex.

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While that sounds nice, it's much too magical for my taste, and probably too magical for most people if you think about it.

If you don't want to install an app/skill, then if your Echo/whatever is to know what you have been watching, then all of your devices and services would have to divulge this information to anyone/thing that asks for it. This has scary privacy implications.

Further, all of your devices and services would have to allow anyone/thing to control them without your permission. This is also scary.

Hopefully that is enough to convince you that having to install an app/skill and grant explicit permission to use your devices, services, and information is not so terrible.

Sure, the process of getting everything set up can definitely be improved, but it's never going to be as simple as buying an Echo, plugging it in, then telling it to play Scandal, and it already knows where you left off, what service you were watching it on, and already able to take control over the devices in your house. That's just not a world we want to live in.