Google has announced partnerships with lighting, thermostat and smart lock manufacturers in a bid to rival Amazon’s smart speaker offering.
Ahead of the expected UK release of Google Home tomorrow, Google has unveiled 12 new integrations to compete with the huge amount of skills (over 10,000 to be exact) currently available on Amazon’s Alexa platform.
Partnerships rolled out by the company as part of the first significant update to the platform include August, Lifx, Wink, Rachio, TP-Link, First Alert, Best Buy Insignia, Frigidaire, Anova, Geeni, Logitech Harmony and Vivint (to be released this month).
Considering at the time of Home’s US release back in November, the speaker worked with four platforms (Nest, Philips, Hue, SmartThings and IFTTT) this move speaks volumes for the work going on behind the scenes at Google HQ for Home to be a serious competitor to Alexa devices (with over 11 million sold as of January 2017), even if largely DIY-based integrations.
Previously, the Google Assistant only worked with lights, plugs, switches, thermostats and more recently (and uniquely) robot vacuums. This announcement expands the reach of Weave (the language of Google devices) into new territories like smart locks, HVAC, sprinklers and crucially, professionally installed systems as offered by Vivint.
Google’s partnership with Vivint means users will be able to control cameras, security systems and garage doors via a Google Home package. Vivint of course offers something similar via Amazon Echo bundles.