Home automation with virtual assistants
TURN YOUR AMAZON ECHO OR GOOGLE HOME INTO A HOME AUTOMATION DEVICE.
UP UNTIL QUITE recently, home automation was a hardcore process, typically undertaken only by professionals and the most enthusiastic of high-tech home makers. To set up home automation, one had to figure out a host of different protocols and systems like X10 and Zigbee, understand software that was more designed for engineers than consumers, and painstaking create scripts to control the automated devices.
A few years ago, however, a new range of devices appeared that made it easier. Things like Belkin’s Wemo and Philips’ Hue allowed relatively straightforward mobile control of devices, although their domains were often limited and you’d end up running multiple apps to control devices from different manufacturers.
But in just the last year, things have got even better. Virtual personal assistants like Google Home and the Amazon Echo allow you to use a single voice-controlled device to manage automatable appliances. You can do more than just turn your lights on and off or start the coffee machine with voice commands, too. New tools for those platforms allow you to program Routines, scripting automated events and custom voice commands for your automatable appliances.
SOME OF THE DEVICES YOU CAN USE
Although an unfortunate number of voice-controlled devices have never made it to our shores, there is still a healthy selection of home devices and appliances that you can control with your virtual voice assistant. We’ve looked at some of the best known below.
August Smart Lock Pro
WORKS WITH: AMAZON ALEXA, GOOGLE ASSISTANT A door lock you can control from your mobile — allowing you to lock, unlock and see if the door is open or closed — the August Smart Lock Pro is also controllable using both the Google and Amazon voice assistants. Unfortunately, if you really want one of these, you may have to import it from the US, as we could not find it sold locally.
Belkin Wemo devices
WORKS WITH: AMAZON ALEXA, GOOGLE ASSISTANT Belkin’s Wemo line includes smart light switches, electrical switches (allowing you to turn devices on and off at the power point), baby monitors, motion sensors and security cameras. The devices were built to work with Belkin’s own Wemo app, but now work with Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant, allowing you to control them entirely with voice commands. You can also configure groups of devices, name specific devices that the voice assistant will recognise (for example, you could name an electrical switch ‘coffee machine’) and set up Routines. Not every device is supported yet, but the light and electrical switches currently are.
Ecobee4
WORKS WITH: AMAZON ALEXA Smart thermostats aren’t really much of a thing in Australia since central heating is very rare, so this is one of those appliances that you will have to import from the US if you want it and have a compatible home heating system. If you do want voicecontrolled temperature systems, there are a number available, including the widelypraised Ecobee4, which doesn’t just work with Alexa — it actually has Alexa built in. There are also alternative smart thermostats as well, like Google Nest and the Honeywell Lyric.
Google Chromecast Audio
WORKS WITH: GOOGLE ASSISTANT It’s perhaps not surprising that the Chromecast Audio works with Google Assistant. Although the Google Home is a music speaker itself, you may want to connect to a better audio system or beam it to other
rooms, and the Google Chromecast Audio lets you do that, controlling the playback through commands issued to the Google Home. Amazon recently introduced a competitor in the US, Alexa Cast, but it only works with Amazon Music.
LG SmartThinQ devices
WORKS WITH: AMAZON ALEXA, GOOGLE ASSISTANT Just this year, LG started implementing its SmartThinQ technology into a host of its home appliances, including ovens, fridges, washers, dryers, air conditioners, robotic vacuums and other devices. The devices allow remote control, as well as status updates through a mobile phone, and all these devices work with both Alexa and Google Assistant. For example, you could use Google Assistant to set the temperature and start the oven, and it could inform you when the cooking is done.
Netgear Arlo Pro
WORKS WITH: AMAZON ALEXA, GOOGLE ASSISTANT Netgear’s battery-powered IP camera is designed for home security and child monitoring, allowing you to stream live video across the internet to your mobile, as well as talk through the two-way speaker and detect motion in its field of vision. It also supports commands issued through both Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing you to switch the camera on and off, speak through it and beam the video stream to other connected devices (“OK, Google, show the front gate on the loungeroom TV”).
Philips Hue
WORKS WITH: AMAZON ALEXA, GOOGLE ASSISTANT Philips has been remarkably successful with its Wi-Fi-enabled light globes (and lamps and LED strips), the Philips Hue. The globes allow you to switch on and off and to control the colour and intensity of the light produced using a mobile app. The globes now also work with both Amazon and Google’s voice assistants, allowing you to easily control lighting using voice commands and to set up Routines for lighting in your home.
Following the success of the Hue, there are other similarly-enabled smart light bulbs, including a range of products from LIFX and TP-Link, as well as wall-mounted light panels such as the Nanoleaf Aurora system.
Samsung SmartThings
WORKS WITH: AMAZON ALEXA, GOOGLE ASSISTANT Like LG, Samsung has started integrating smart controls into many of its appliances, including its fridges, ovens, washers, dryers, refridgerators, air conditioning, security cameras, outlets and more. The devices were designed to work with Samsung’s own SmartThings Hub, but can also be controlled through both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. For security reasons, there are quite a few limitations right now on what can be controlled, however.