The Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod don't run on magic, as much as Silicon Valley would like you to believe so.
There's a lot of engineering going on behind the scenes, both on hardware and software levels. These devices are rather similar in execution, too.
In the video above we'll walk you through a bit of the engineering behind how smart home devices work, from the stages each goes through to turn your voice into executable computer commands and how each understands what you're trying to say.
The gist is this: you say something, the device picks it up and within seconds gives you a response.
But the computing isn't just done inside the device. Instead, these products use complex algorithms to scour the Web for the answer you're looking for. In some cases, they're even learning from your preferences and earlier queries.
Which one is best? Watch the video for our thoughts.