A number of connected home devices already work with Google’s smart speaker and today a few more are being added to the fold. Logitech’s Harmony line and Wink’s lighting gear and thermostats can now be controlled with voice commands from Google Home. “Ok Google, ask Harmony to…” can control your connected speakers, fire up a specific app on Roku, skip forward/backward on content and more for devices that work with Logitech’s smart home platform.
You can also use you voice to trigger Harmony’s “Good Morning” activity that does things like set Hue lights to a warm color, adjust your thermostat and begin playing music at the same time. Logitech says its Harmony Elite, Companion and Hub smart home tech can be used with up to 270,000 devices. That’s a lot of things you can now control with your voice and Google Home. Of course, Harmony devices also play nice with Amazon’s Alexa.
If you have a Wink smart home hub, you now have another way to control connected lights and thermostats. That included the company’s light bulbs, switches, dimmers and outlets. It’s now compatible with Google Home speakers, so all you’d have to do is say “Ok, Google” and follow that up with a voice command. The hub has been compatible with Amazon’s Alexa assistant for quite some time — now you can enjoy the same perks if you have a Home instead of an Echo.
You can tell Google’s speaker to switch Wink-connected lights on or off, or to dim or brighten them. If you want to adjust or set the temperature, simply control your thermostat by saying “Ok Google, turn up the temperature by 10 degrees” or “set the temperature to 70 degrees.” You’d have to link your speaker with the hub before you can do any of that. But once that’s done, you can go wild issuing one command after another.
Billy Steele contributed to this report.
