The highly competitive tech giants Apple, Google and Amazon have announced they are teaming up in an effort to make smart home tech easier to use.
The firms, along with the Zigbee Alliance, will work together so that smart home products are compatible with many different smartphones and voice assistants…
One analyst [Creative Strategies’ Carolina Milanesi] said the move was a “surprise” and showed the companies were willing to “play nice”.
On their project website, the companies state: “Customers can be confident that their device of choice will work in their home and that they will be able to set up and control it with their preferred system.”
The firms say that current smart home products should continue to work, even after the new standard is brought in.
However, that won’t be imminent – draft specifications are due to be released in late 2020 at the earliest.
MacDailyNews Take: As long as security is integral, this joint project will finally propel smart home automation into the mainstream.