Google Home vs Amazon Echo for home intercom

amother

Wed, Dec 29 2021, 6:15 pm

Sorry for the long post, I threw in all the info I could think of just in case. For TLDR just read the first paragraph.

I think I'm going over to the dark side.

My main objective is actually to use as a household intercom. I'm used to living in a small home where if my kid wakes up in middle of the night and needs something, I can hear their call from anywhere. Likewise if I want one of my kids, I can call in a moderate volume and expect a response. We're moving to a house with a whole bunch of stairs and more walls between the rooms and it makes me nervous that I won't be able to keep track of my family. This probably sounds weird to people who grew up in houses but I've lived several decades in apartments and I just don't know how it works!

Anyway. What is it that I want to buy if I want to set something up in all the main rooms so that we can page each other? Or should we just stick with texting/calling each other because most have phones by now anyway?

And is there any way to put a filter on these things? Like once I'm setting up an intercom system we may as well use these things to play music and do other "smart" stuff but I don't want them to accidentally get dirty iykwim.

I am not already involved in either the echo or the home/nest ecosystem. One or two family members do happen to own an echo device. Most of us who have phones use google/android. I use google calendar. I do have Amazon Prime but not necessarily committed to it forever. I use and pay for Spotify as my music supplier.

I'd like to hook it up to a doorbell unit so we can ask who's at the door from wherever - I believe there are doorbells that work with google and amazon, but I'm not sure if that's both or if you need to commit to one.

Budget is a factor but I'm OK waiting for sales. Unfortunately we just missed Black Friday and I don't want to wait until Prime Day either, so I'm not sure what to expect. In total I'd want one for the kitchen, hopefully audible from the adjoining living/dining room or do we need another one for the L/DR? One for master bedroom, one for kids bedroom, one for playroom, one for office. That's 5-6?!

Just throwing in any information that might be relevant, hoping it will help.

nicole81

Thu, Dec 30 2021, 2:28 am

I have Google and I love it. I keep it very filtered and I had no issues for the first year until literally yesterday my 3 year old got into a cartoon that was supposedly an allowed show, but dubbed with very adult matter (not s-xual) so I need to further tinker with the YouTube restrictions. Nothing is foolproof however.

You can't filter the actual device physically, but you can set it up so that websites won't work, only apps that you allow, and then put restrictions on the apps using your Gmail account. It will still answer questions, so you'll need to enable safe search for the accounts synched to the devices. You might even want to go into the back end of your ip address and blacklist/filter certain terms all together. If you're not good with Google or ip filtering, you might need professional help setting it up.

But why not just get a regular intercom system? Or walkie talkies 😂? Ultimately it will add more screen time/internet time for kids in your home so I wouldn't use any home hub unless you're OK with that reality.

I do not have Alexa and don't know much about it. But as a long time Google account and google device user, I appreciate the amount of user control one has with their products and I would surmise it allows for better parental oversight.

amother

Thu, Dec 30 2021, 1:05 pm

A regular intercom system probably costs more, needs to be installed, and doesn't have that potential to do other things. But if you can tell me about an intercom system that doesn't cost much and isn't complicated to install, I'm all ears.

Walkie talkies won't have the reach we need.

How will it add more screen time if it's just a screenless speaker device? I'm confused.

If you have a bunch of connected google home devices can you give each one an identity so you can choose to, say, call the kitchen?