Amazon Echo and Google Home have a stiff competition going on in the niche smart home arena. Amazon Echo is currently in the lead in terms of sales and functionalities, but Google Home is making its way to the top sooner than expected.
One of the biggest advantages Amazon has over Google is its support for a wide range of third-party devices. Google Home supports a limited range compared to Amazon Echo, but that's changing now. Google has added series of new partners to its smart home project, which will help it scale up and catch up with its chief rival.
Google Home started off its third-party integrations with just four platforms – IFTTT, Philips Hue, Nest and SmartThings. While the web search titan has slowly been expanding its partner portfolio, the latest push marks a significant leap in the right direction.
Google Home now supports smart gadgets from the following brands:
- TP-Link
- Logitech Harmony
- August
- Vivint
- First Alert
- Rachio
- LIFX
- Wink
- Best Buy Insignia
- Electrolux Frigidaire
- Geeni
- Anova
With these new partnerships, users can control smart devices from these companies using Google Home's voice-activated commands. For instance, you can lock or check if your August smart lock is locked, control lights linked to Wink, adjust the colour and brightness of lights with LIFX, control Rachio smart sprinkler and so much more via Google Home's integrated Google Assistant, The Verge reported.
AIs are certainly the center of everything smart these days. Amazon has Alexa, Google has Assistant and Samsung launched its own Bixby smart assistant with the Galaxy S8 series. Convenience of doing things around the house with just voice commands is becoming a trend, giving a grand exposure to the Internet of Things or smart homes into the world. While Amazon Echo and Google Home are among the most popular gadgets to kickstart your smart home dream, the battle between the two is getting fierce day by day. It remains to be seen how these companies will outperform each other in the days to come.
There's a lot happening in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, so stay tuned.
