Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has announced that its voice-enabled digital assistant, Google Assistant, will be integrated into more products and appliances including smart speakers, smart washing machines, dryers and vacuums. Among the smart speakers which will be capable of speaking with Google Assistant is Anker’s Zolo Mojo, Panasonic’s GA10 and Mobvoi’s TicHome Mini. The three speakers are expected to be launched later in the year and they will initially be made available in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France, Canada and Australia.
Issuing commands
The participating products will make use of the software development kit of Google Assistant in order for them to be able to communicate with the artificial intelligence assistant via devices or to issue various commands ranging from asking them to start washing clothes, begin vacuuming and so on.
“Starting later this year, with manufacturers like LG, you’ll be able control your appliances, including washers, dryers, vacuums, and more from your Assistant on your smart speaker, Android phone or iPhone,” senior director for Google Assistant, Abhi Taneja, wrote in a blog post.
IFA Show
The news comes ahead of the international consumer electronics event IFA which will be held between September 1 and September 6 in Berlin, Germany. More smart appliances and speakers are expected to be integrated into Google Assistant in future. Besides the expansion of the number of products that Google Assistant has been integrated with the tech giant is also in plans to launch a smaller Google Home smart speaker which will be in competition with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) Echo Dot.
Google’s announcement comes in the wake of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon partnering to allow their respective digital assistants, Cortana and Alexa, to be integrated into each other’s products. This will see users of Alexa for instance being able to check their appointments on Microsoft Outlook. Users of Microsoft devices and tools will also be able to compile shopping lists using Alexa. This is intended to broaden the consumer base of each digital assistant. At the moment the two firms are not planning on integrating their digital assistants with those of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Google.
On Wednesday shares of Alphabet Inc rose by 0.84% to close the day at $943.63.