Google Home is becoming a much more capable control center for smart home devices today, with the addition of support from several more products and systems.
August, Wink, LIFX, TP-Link, Rachio, Vivint, and Best Buy’s Insignia are all announcing integrations with Google Home, allowing owners of their products to issue voice controls through Google’s speaker. TechCrunch reports that First Alert, Frigidaire, Logitech, Geeni, and Anova are also adding integrations.
Here’s what some of them will let you do:
- August will let you lock its smart lock and check whether it’s locked or not (but not unlock it by voice)
- Wink will let you control lights and thermostats connected to a Wink Hub
- LIFX will let you control the color and brightness of its lights
- TP-Link will let you control its smart lights, outlets, and switches
- Rachio will let you control its sprinkler system by voice
- Vivint will let you control products connected to its system by voice
There’s a good mix of products here that ought to open up some new options for Google Home owners. Companies like August, LIFX, and TP-Link offer products that work over Wi-Fi and can be added into a home without investing in a hub. While Wink and Vivint do require a hub, but include a lot more options for those who’re interested.
Taken together, today’s announcements greatly expands what Google Home is capable of doing: until now, it only had device integrations from five companies: Philips Hue, SmartThings, WeMo, Honeywell, and Nest (which Google owns).
While these integrations are technically made possibly by the Google Assistant, there unfortunately continues to be a distinction between Google Assistant on Google Home and Google Assistant on phones. August and Rachio tell The Verge that their integrations work on Google Home only, while Wink, LIFX, and TP-Link say their integration will work on phones as well.
The announcements follow a Google event in London this morning, where the company announced it would begin selling Google Home in the UK after six months on sale in the US. Google’s multi-unit router system, Google Wifi, is launching in the UK as well, beginning next week.
Update March 28th, 12:14PM ET: This story has been updated to note additional integrations.