Being able to control your connected appliances through Google Home/Google Assistant isn’t exactly a new feature. However for some devices, you had to specifically mention the brand, meaning that in a way Google Assistant acts as a middle person to convey your message to the appliance.
However the good news is that it appears that Google Assistant/Google Home can now control your smart locks natively. So far native support has only been extended to two brands – August and Vivint, which means that if you own smart locks from either of these manufacturers, you can just tell Google Assistant/Home to “lock the door” and it will know what you mean.
Like we said earlier, prior to this users had to specify the brand, so they would have to issue commands like, “ask August to lock the door”, which feels like you’re passing along the message as opposed to controlling it directly. This is no doubt a convenience feature and one that will make it easier for users to control their home without having to remember brands.
That being said, native control for home appliances aren’t new, and for Google Assistant/Home, this was already built in for devices like lights, plugs, switches, and thermostats, and has now been extended to cover smart locks as well.
Filed in . Read more about Connected Objects, Google, Google Assistant, Google Home and IoT (Internet of Things).