[AlexandrB]

Strong disagree on Alexa. Maybe it's the way I talk, but I find voice assistants wildly inconsistent. There's nothing more frustrating than having to repeat yourself to a robot.

Maybe AI will improve the situation in the next few years, but I'm not convinced.

[bluGill]

Alexa - when it works - can do things that cannot be done better in a different ways. There are times when turning on a light or unlocking a door with a phone is better than the alternatives as well. However there are a lot of times where the 100+ year old way of doing the task is better.

Even if voice assistants worked perfectly every time they would still be worse than the switch by the door for controlling the light as you enter/leave. However if you are in bed it may be that despite the current annoyances Alexa is better for controlling the same light.

[bitwize]

But "The Clapper" would do just as well in the case where you are in bed, and is less complex, less expensive, and doesn't send your claps to the cloud.

[ninetyninenine]

"Clapper set lights to red." I like to set the temperature of the lights to a single color at night so as to not mess up my circadian rhythms. Looks like clapper fits the bill.

[bitwize]

God only knows, you might get your wish. They're probably planning a revamp of the Clapper with built-in AI as we speak.

[bluGill]

which might or might not be good enough. Alexa can turn on other lights, play various types of music, give you the weather... Depending on what you want this might be worth it.

Home automation systems (Home assistant, openhab...) are making good progress on local only voice control as well.

[insane_dreamer]

In this case Siri not Alexa, but it does horribly at interpreting kids' speech. No end of frustration for my 8 year old who wants to play music on our HomePod.

[ninetyninenine]

Agreed. But repeating your self is an unintentional artifact. when it works it’s beautiful.

The phone app is just annoying by design.