It's not without reason that the devices that work on Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are the two most popular smart speaker lines.

Both come in a variety of designs, function great as virtual assistants, allow you to control various smart home devices, and have countless other features and capabilities.

There are key differences, and we’ll outline them for you. In this walkthrough, we’ll use the Amazon Echo Studio and Google Nest Audio for the hardware comparison.

Google and Amazon’s smart speakers are somewhat unique compared to most other types of electronics in that while the hardware isn’t updated often, the underlying software is constantly evolving. These platforms are powered by artificial intelligence, with Google Assistant on one end and Alexa on the other, and the development cycle for these virtual assistants is never-ending.