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The first products for Google’s new smart home platform are being announced

The first products for Google’s new smart home platform are being announced

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Google wants to be the thread that ties together the smart home world, and we're starting to see what that could look like today. At CES this morning, companies are announcing their first plans to use Google's new Internet of Things platform and language, Brillo and Weave, which were announced last March. The details are still extremely basic, but it means that Brillo and Weave are moving forward. Soon enough, they could be connecting the many different bits of our home.

Here are the four announcements we've caught so far:

  • asus2.0.jpg Asus is announcing announcing a smart home bridge (seen right) built on Brillo. That should allow people using other Asus smart home products to more easily hook them up to an Android phone. It's not the most exciting start for Brillo, but this is the same kind of thing we saw with Apple's HomeKit, too, where Lutron and Insteon led the field with hubs for their existing systems. Asus doesn't plan to stop at just a hub, however. Asus says that more Brillo-powered products will come "later in 2016."
  • Kwikset is making a smart door lock that connects over Weave, which should likewise make it easy to connect to Android phones. The lock is a new design for Kwikset, its first that goes entirely keyless in favor of other means of entry. A prototype of the lock is supposed to be on the CES show floor this week.
Details are really, really limited right now
  • Marvell is announcing a Wi-Fi chip that speaks Weave. Look, I know, that sounds really boring. But the implication is that Marvell's chips will make it easier for other companies to start building smart home products on Google's new platform.
  • Harman says it'll be working with other companies to help them build Brillo and Weave devices. Okay, there's no exciting defense of that one.

That's not much, but it's still early in CES week. We'll likely see a lot more announcements concerning Brillo and Weave over the next several days — and those should get a bit more interesting, bringing the platform to more common home appliances. Last year at CES, we saw the first set of products that connect with Apple's HomeKit. This year, it looks Brillo and Weave will be doing the same thing. The big question will be whether the highlight is a product you'll want to take home, or just a Wi-Fi chip.

See all of our CES 2016 news right here!


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