The major smart home digital assistants, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant, would operate on a common standard of technology under a plan. On Wednesday, the idea was announced by Google, Amazon, and Apple that aims to facilitate more smart home devices to speak to each other.
The purpose of the project would be to support developers to create new products without payment of royalties for connectivity software and allowing consumers to then choose their preferred voice assistants on the devices.
According to the statement by the new working group, “the aim of this project is to improve the experience of the consumer trying to use smart home products that are not compatible with each other.”
Google also added, “You will be able to choose between Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or other platforms.”
The three tech giants have large support from the smart home industry. Apple, Amazon, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance, joined together to develop a common wireless standard for connected devices. This new project also includes manufacturers such as Samsung, retailers such as Ikea, and other tech firms, including Texas Instruments and NXP Semiconductors. The project is called ‘Project Connected Home over IP.’
Grant Erickson and Nik Sathe, engineers of the Google Nest, the connected home division of Google, said in a statement, “Both consumers and developers will benefit from this new universal smart home connectivity standard.”
Wherever it may end up, but the instant goal of ensuring devices work across the ecosystem of all the three tech giants is a big win for customers. On the arrival of this standard, it would be easy for the users to figure out whether any given gadget will actually work for them.
Some of the smart home gadgets do tend to work across multiple smart home systems, but they do not always support all three big ones, and feature support also varies across systems.
According to CNBC, the group will initially concentrate on physical safety devices. They include door locks, smoke alarms, smart plugs, heating/air conditioning controls, and security systems. Other commercial and consumer devices would be looked after later.
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