5 Ways to Ditch Voice Assistants Permanently in Your Smart Home

https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/f13c27387fb32d2c30e0fef587d7bf2265690922/hub/2026/06/03/cdd49119-f1bd-4613-91f1-f729b0ebc6c8/shutterstock-woman-frowning-at-smart-speaker.jpg?auto=webp&fi...

Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement

You don't have to enable voice assistants like Alexa or Siri: Here our my favorite alternatives.

4 min read

It seems like every bit of smart home tech comes with voice assistant support. Many devices are eager to tell you if they work with Alexa, or Apple's Siri, or Google's latest Gemini for Home. That's fine if you like giving voice commands to various parts of your home beyond your reach, but if you're worried about privacy or how companies manage voice recordings they collect, it may be a step too far.

But you can avoid voice assistants and their online complications by choosing other options for home control. You don't haveto...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to cnet.com. To see the full text click HERE

Read more

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7387hAW6VzVLUkkAiiAaqG-2520-80.jpg

'Cuts through dirt like a dorsal fin through water’ — I love how Shark’s transforming vacuum cleaner switches smoothly between upright and stick vac, while its smart suction devours dust in every situation

The flexible 3-in-1 transforming design that allows you to easily switch between upright, stick and handheld vacuum might be the Shark PowerDetect Transformer’s most attention-grabbing feature. But what really impressed me is its strong suction and super-smart auto-detection — it adapts to different flooring, edges and quantities of dirt automatically,