The Best Smart Speakers for 2024

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Smart speakers bring voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri to any room of your home. Just say their name to get an answer to a question, play music, or control your smart home devices. PCMag has been reviewing smart speakers since the first Amazon Echo in 2015, so we can help you find the best one for your home, no matter which voice assistant you prefer. Amazon's smart speakers still lead the pack, with the fourth-generation Echo and the Echo Studio topping our list of Editors' Choice winners. But one of the other entries here might appeal more depending on your needs, so be sure to click through to our in-depth reviews of each. And for everything you need to know about smart speakers, scroll down to the end for our buying guide.

How to Talk to Your Smart Speaker

Every smart speaker responds to a wake word, such as "Alexa" for Alexa, "Hey, Google" for Google, and "Siri" for Siri. Once the speaker indicates it is listening, you can ask whatever you want. The question then is how to ask.

All three voice assistants are fairly easy to talk with, but they can trip up if you don't use the proper syntax. You need to speak to Alexa in a certain way to get the best results. This isn't a problem once you get used to the syntax, but the voice assistant too often gets confused if you use a term it doesn't know or phrase a command in an unfamiliar way.

Google Assistant and Siri are both much better at recognizing natural language and are generally less frustrating to use. Amazon continues to develop Alexa, but for now, Google and Apple have the edge.

How to Use a Smart Speaker to Manage Your Smart Home

Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri can control pretty much any smart home device nowadays. In the Alexa and Google apps, and with the Siri Shortcuts feature, you can set up rooms of multiple devices to control, plus configure multistep routines, like "I'm leaving the house." All three smart assistants support most major smart home device brands, with few holes between them.

The Amazon Echo and Echo Studio add support for the Zigbee smart home standard, which means they work with more third-party devices (and other Echo speakers in your home). Most newer smart home devices are Wi-Fi-based and hubless or otherwise work with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you shouldn't run into compatibility issues.

If you intend to use Siri to control your smart home, make sure the smart home devices you buy are HomeKit-compatible and you have a HomePod, iPad, or Apple TV to use as a hub. These devices enable you to create rooms, groups, and multistep routines, as well as control your devices remotely—but only from iOS. Apple's Home app is gorgeous, but you have to be all-in with Apple for it to work well.

Matter is an emerging standard worth monitoring, though it isn't yet widely available for smart home devices.

You can also use Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri to control a TV or home entertainment center with a compatible TV or appropriate hardware add-on (for example, a media streamer like an Amazon Fire TV device for Alexa, a Chromecast or Android TV for Google Assistant, an Apple TV for Siri, or a Roku device for any of them).

Explore Third-Party Smart Speaker Skills

Amazon's voice assistant ecosystem benefits from tens of thousands of third-party "skills," and Amazon has a directory of them on its site. These skills let you do everything; for example, you can check your local transit status, look up your credit card balance, find trivia about your favorite college football team, play games, and sing along with songs. However, you have to seek out the skills you want and stick to a very specific syntax. It's a stunningly powerful system, but it involves a bit of a learning curve.

Google Assistant has fewer skills, a result of its ability to understand more casual syntax and conversational commands. Regardless, you can check out Google's skills (which it calls "actions") in its convenient web-based directory.

Can You Use Smart Speakers for Phone Calls?

All of the voice assistants let you make phone calls from your smart speaker. Alexa and Google make free phone calls directly. Google Assistant can call numbers in the US and Canada, but only to phone numbers in your Google Contacts. Alexa can call anyone in the US, Canada, and Mexico, but not toll-free numbers. You can also use Amazon Drop In to make voice calls to any friends or family with Alexa devices or the Alexa app, including different Echo speakers in your own home. The HomePod works as a speakerphone, too, but you have to start the call on your iPhone.

How Do Smart Speakers Sound?

All smart speakers can play music from your phone, but if you rely only on voice commands, you are stuck with cloud services. Alexa and Google Assistant both connect to Apple Music and Spotify Premium accounts, as well as to Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio for free. Alexa speakers also play Amazon Prime Music, while Google Assistant speakers can access YouTube Music. Siri on the HomePod and HomePod mini can play Apple Music and songs from your Apple Music account. For any of these services, you can just ask the smart speaker to start playing music from them.

Most smart speakers also support Bluetooth connections or the Apple AirPlay or Google Cast platforms, so you can stream audio directly from your phone, tablet, or computer. Several feature 3.5mm ports, though some are output-only (for connecting to larger, non-smart speakers).

The Google Nest Mini and Amazon Echo Spot have both made big strides in sound quality, but they aren't quite good enough to be primary music speakers. The Echo, HomePod mini, and Nest Audio sound better, as do most smart speakers in the $100 to $200 price range. The best value on this list is currently the $200 Echo Studio, which sounds just as good as speakers that cost twice as much. Above $300, the Sonos Era 300, Sonos Move 2, and second-gen HomePod deliver top-notch audio.

Ultimately, the best smart speaker for you has the voice assistant you want, along with the right power, size, and price for your needs. And if you want video support as well, there are always smart displays, which are basically smart speakers with touch screens.