Apple, Amazon And Google Join Forces On Smart Devices

Apple, Amazon and Google have been long and sometimes bitter rivals, but now they’re working together to improve the interoperability of voice assistants in our smart homes.

What happened?

Apple, Amazon and Google have been long and sometimes bitter rivals, but now they’re working together to improve the interoperability of voice assistants in our smart homes. This collaboration should mean that smart gadgets you buy from third-party suppliers such as Ikea will work with any of the leading voice assistants, whether it’s Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri or Google Assistant.

To accomplish this, the tech giants have set up a working group called Project Connected Home over IP (www.connectedhomeip .com), which will create a new internet protocol standard. In other words, they’re going to talk to each other about how to make their systems work together more easily.

The aim is to build a standard that works with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other internet-based communications, and allows any voice assistant to control any smart home device. If the project succeeds, any new smart gadget you buy should work instantly with any of the voice assistants straight out of the box. This will not only make life easier for consumers who want to set up a smart home but will also simplify development for manufacturers.