Yesterday we learned that Google Assistant is about to offer more capabilities on your phones and gain several smart and interesting features, but there’s one other piece of interesting news: it’s also now adding support for more smart home devices and appliances.
Google has updated its support page for partners and services to add 11 new companies. Here they are with a short explanation of what they do:
- LightwaveRF (lighting, power, heating, sensors)
- Plum (lightpad dimmer)
- Voice UPB Bridge (bridge to connect to Universal Power Bus devices)
- Smartika (hub and smart home system)
- Nanoleaf (decorative modular lighting panels)
- Hive (smart home hub)
- Awair (air monitoring)
- D-Link (for “upcoming” mydlink products says the Press Release)
- Wiz (smart bulbs and luminaires)
- Deako (light switches)
- Geeni (cameras, lighting, power).
All of these new devices and services will be natively supported in the Home Control section of Google Assistant, by simply tapping the floating + button to add new products.
But there are other additions as well, except they’re “Actions on Google,” i.e. they’re third-party implementations that you can find under Assistant apps and not the regular Home control section. These are like Alexa’s skills, you have to ask to talk to them or say their name specifically, and you will get an answer with a different voice than the regular Google Home or Assistant voice.
However, they’re proof that more and more companies are getting on the Assistant bandwagon, even if they don’t have the full blessing of Google to go directly into the directory of smart home products. And there are big names here:
- iRobot (support page), the maker of the Roomba robot vacuums
- GE (source) and its Geneva connected fridges, ovens, washers, dryers, AC units, and more
- LG (announcement) for its Signature washer, dryer, fridge, oven, air purifier, AC unit, and robot vacuum
- Blossom (official site), a company making smart sprinklers.
There might be more that we haven’t spotted yet, so let us know if there are other new additions to the Assistant apps selection and what your favorites among all of these are. I’m excited about Nanoleaf since I have an Aurora, but there are more companies that have piqued my interest in the list that I might be taking a closer look at.
Pete Deutschman 