Google Assistant gets native controls for a bunch of new devices
Look for security systems, showers, microwaves, garages and more to work more naturally with your Google Home.
Between the debut of the Nest Hub Max, the merging of Google and Nest, the debut of the new Google Assistant and more, Google's smart home efforts had a big day on Tuesday -- the first day of the Google I/O developer conference. But it was after all of the keynotes, 35 minutes into a small developer session on Google Assistant, that they showed the slide below.
Google Assistant will now work natively with all of the device types on the right, with support for the commands on the left. For the device types, that means you won't have to use clunky extra language. If you have a smart speaker like the Google Home or another device with the built-in Google Assistant nearby, you can just say "Hey, Google, start the microwave" as opposed to "Hey, Google, tell GE to start the microwave."
The traits allow Google Assistant to recognize associated commands. For lock and unlock, arm and disarm, developers could potentially tell Google to just use a on/off function with slightly different language, but this will make their lives easier. It should also allow Google to recognize a wider variety of conversational commands around these functions.
Google quietly expanded Google Assistant's roster of compatible devices at last year's I/O as well. This year, the developer sessions in particular have shown a path to a faster, more versatile Google-powered smart home.
