[dobbles]

My experience I think is pretty similar to OP. I went for the google home environment and find the app to be pretty awful. I also echo what barnes said in that so much of what I do is just the daily automation of lights and such. We do utilize the voice commands a decent amount, though the rest of my family does not enunciate well enough to get what they need on the first try. I also like having the various speaker groups to play music to. For the most part though I do use individual apps if I just need to turn something on or off.

I have a total hodge podge in our house. (mostly because I'm a tightwad and try all the cheap stuff) Here's what I use:
Rachio sprinkler controller. This is great for automating my watering, pausing the schedule based on forecast or previous precipitation, and allowing me to spot water from my phone if needed.

myQ garage door from Chamberlin. This came with the new unit I put in a year or two back. Its nice to have an app to open or close the garage and check its status. You have to pay to integrate it with google home so this one is 100% external app.

Sensi thermostats (units are Emerson). I didn't want to fork over the big bucks for a nest but wanted units I could control with voice or on my phone. So I do occasionally use voice commands through google to change the temp and can adjust from the app, but most of the time I will go through the sensi app to manage things. has some cool features like usage tracking as well.

Meross for smart plugs: I have tried several brands for smart plugs and switches, but have meross specifically because they had a fairly cheap outdoor plug that I got a couple of for fountains and lights that are outside. I also have a couple regular indoor plugs as well. Same as the others and can use the google app ro voice to control but often use the meross app to quickly turn something off.

Kasa for plugs and bulbs. In our old house we had newer wiring and I had actually switched out almost all the switches on our first floor to have hem be wifi switches. So I was pretty heavily invested in the TP-link environment. Sine moving though older wiring means no neutral wire and I had to ditch all their cheap smart switches. I do still have some bulbs and plugs from them and usage is the same as meross. Can use google but primarily use the kasa app.

Wyze for a little bit of everything. I have a love hate relationship with Wyze. I am pretty heavily invested in their ecosystem at this point but often question why. Their stuff is insanely cheap. But often doesn't work too well. I started with their cameras which do work fairly well.
I have ~8 running inside and outside the some. (side note: i have had the regular $20 cameras outside under my eaves for 2 years and never had any issues with weather) The cameras themselves work great but the app is pretty clunky. They have SD cards for local storage but trying to rewind through footage often causes the app to spaz out. I got in early so I get my clips uploaded to the cloud for free so that's nice.
I also have a decent amount of their home automation items. I have used the door sensors most but at this point have given up. They run through batteries pretty quick and I have had trouble getting them back online after. Either I have to try 5 different new batteries before one works and then if it has power it still won't reconnect to wifi after multiple resets. When we moved into this house I had 4 sensors working initially but am not using any right now.
I have some plugs and bulbs that work well. They are similar to the kasa and meross. I do really like the bulbs as they have a good range of brightness and shading. They are not the color version though.
Lastly we do also have their scale and my wife has their fitness band. Both of those work as intended. The scale is nice to have one that will track your weight through the app. For her fitbit knockoff, I don't see a whole lot of upside in having it be integrated with Wyze. I don't think theres ever a time she used it to turn a light on or off.

Google home. Hardware wise, I do have quite a few devices. I stockpiled a bunch of minis over a couple of black Fridays. I find them to work really well for their price. I have a couple of the last generation home speakers and I do like the better sound quality. We have a larger play area for the kids, and I actually have both a mini and a full size in that room and I feel when you combine them both together you get really good sound quality. I also have first generation hubs that I got cheap before v2 came out. We mostly use them as clocks in addition to their mic/speaker benefits.





Ok, that concludes my way too long rundown of smart home. I have tried a lot of products at this point so feel free to ask any questions! You can probably tell I don't get to talk about this very much as I way overshared!