Google Assistant is Adding Support for New Doorbells and Laundry Styler Appliances
Google Assistant is adding support for a range of new devices, according to new documentation that was apparently mistakenly posted on Friday for a few hours before getting taken down. The upcoming additions continue Google’s efforts to extend its smart home capabilities, especially under the Nest brand.
Ring and Clean
The plans to support new devices were discovered in the documents under a confidential material banner, with a red warning that the devices were for early access program users and not to be mentioned without permission. Presumably, this support was to be tested by developers on an invitation basis. Tellingly, the documents vanished after some hours but were captured in screenshots before that happened. The two devices listed in the doc are doorbells and stylers. Google Assistant supports plenty of doorbells already, making the idea of them as a new device somewhat strange. Google, including an already supported kind of device in the documentation, suggests that it’s not doorbells that will be new, but what they are capable of doing for users. Perhaps, like the already extant Google Nest Hello doorbell, more third-party manufacturers will gain native support or showcase new features, like being able to announce who the visitor is at the door. As for the other device mentioned on the list, a styler is a kind of laundry machine. There aren’t that many around right now, but Google may be trying to get ahead of what it sees as a future trend like the LG Styler depicted at the top of this article. According to the documentation, here’s what Google is referring to:
“The Styler is a unique device that refreshes clothes through steaming and sanitization. Many of its functionalities are similar to those of a washer/dryer, including the ability to start, stop and pause, adjust various modes and settings, and provide information about its current running state.”
Smarter Homes
The new additions to the supported device list, premature though they may be, are part of a continual spate of new Google’s Nest smart home support. For instance, the company recently revamped its Nest Aware subscription service to make it simpler and more appealing to new potential customers. The product added a feature to alert users about suspicious sounds noted by Google Nest devices as well. Those changes, in turn, arrived after Google Assistant gained native support for sensors like smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Sensor-only devices can now be connected to the voice assistant hub to make it more effective at monitoring and taking care of people’s homes using non-Google creations.
That’s not to say that Google-made devices aren’t crucial to the company’s long-term goal of getting more people to make Google the center of their smart homes. That’s why the Nest Wifi router has Google Assistant built-in and why Google is selling Google Home Minis for such a low cost. Access to SiriusXM and being able to transfer audio and video between smart devices are all part of the same system. Similarly, the boosted security for Google Nest smart home products is designed to allay the privacy and safety concerns of potential customers.
Follow @voicebotai Follow @erichschwartz
Google Nest Aware Adds Suspicious Sound Alerts, Drops Subscription and Device Prices
Google Assistant Adds Support for Passive Sensors, Laying Foundation for More Responsive Smart Homes
