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Google Says Assistant Works With Over 5,000 Smart Home Devices, HomeKit/Siri Around 200

People defending Apple that most of these devices are garbage are missing the point. If Google Assistant (and Alexa) are becoming the defacto standard, new devices will aim at supporting those platforms first, and continue to leave HomeKit behind.

Second, a phone or tablet is not the preferred way to interact with these things, a smart speaker is. Again a domain where Apple has no viable answer to. If Google and Amazon continue to push their assistants to be in your home, flight, hotel, car, ...they might be the next thing superseding smart phones. And Apple might loose out.
 
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npmacuser5 said:
Not sure how telling these numbers are. If the 200 devices Apple interfaces with exceeds the quality and needs for home automation, then no problem. Venders would rather be on a selling list with 200 then 5,000. Overwhelming choices are not always a good thing. Apples challenge not numbers but quality of the home automation experience. Struggling at bit!
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The majority of the HomeKit supported devices are also available for Google and Amazon so your logic doesn't quite work out, nor any one else who makes the 'quality' comment.

Lets face it, if Apple supported 5,000 devices, and others 200, you wouldn't even be attempting to make this point - you'd be saying 'Apple crushing the competition by numbers of supported devices'. The word 'Quality' wouldn't even be in your comment.

DominikHoffmann said:
I, too, want a HomeKit utility on macOS!

Also, when you use Google, you sell your privacy to the highest bidder. I love design and functionality of the Nest thermostat, but am unwilling to provide Google with data for the forensic investigation into my life.
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Absolute BS. Google do not sell your personal identifying data. Data is not going to the highest bidder, either.
 
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That because Siri is still stupid and cannot understand people speech and commands. Google assistant is like a human, it can understand.
 
Siri for me is not the show-stopper in any of Apple's devices.*

The biggest problem with HomeKit and other home-related devices is that in Tim's little universe, everybody in the house HAS to have Apple devices. There's no other way about it, except for some crappy Android apps that you can use for AirPlay.

While Tim is not playing nice with the rest of the world, the world will be passing him by. And soon HomeKit and other non-personal devices from Apple will be the niche market that they deserve to be, because of this. Otherwise they're very fine devices. So, tough luck.

*But then I'm not a fan of either digital assistants, be it Siri, Alexa or whatnot.
 
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The farther Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa pull ahead in smart home support and automation the more newer devices will be focused on them. The cheap home mini and echo dot built up a massive user base that developers and new devices are going to focus on first.
 
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So google has 5000 different ways to violate your privacy, harvest your data, eavesdrop on your life, and provide information to sell to advertisers and trackers, versus HomeKit and Siri which has 300 ways to completely misunderstand what you said and offer up irrelevant web searches.

Sigh - such is the state of home assistants today.
 
Google's platform is so far superior to HomeKit and Siri it isn't funny. I just purchased two Google Home Minis, and the ability to give it multiple requests in a single command is fantastic. For example, I just said, "Hey, Google...turn the office lights off and tell me what the temperature is upstairs." The four Hue lights in my office turned off and it told me what the temperature is on the upstairs Nest thermostat. One request crossing multiple devices and the end result was exactly what I was expecting. Apple has a long, long way to go.
 
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avanpelt said:
Google's platform is so far superior to HomeKit and Siri it isn't funny. I just purchased two Google Home Minis, and the ability to give it multiple requests in a single command is fantastic. For example, I just said, "Hey, Google...turn the office lights off and tell me what the temperature is upstairs." The four Hue lights in my office turned off and it told me what the temperature is on the upstairs Nest thermostat. One request crossing multiple devices and the end result was exactly what I was expecting. Apple has a long, long way to go.
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Huh. i didn't know you could string commands together! TIL
 
vipergts2207 said:
Congratulations Google. I bet about 4000 of those products are garbage. The best stuff works with multiple platforms anyway: Lutron, Hue, Schlage, Hunter, ecobee, etc. Why do I care if low-end junk also works on your platform?
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I consider Harmony to be a major platform.
 
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Stella said:
Absolute BS. Google do not sell your personal identifying data. Data is not going to the highest bidder, either.
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Absolutely wrong. That is *exactly* their business model, and they are exceedingly good at doing it. Google maintains individual personal profiles, monitors everything that you do, tracks you across multiple devices, and while you're right that it's not the highest bidder, they will sell that information to anyone that meets the asking price. There's a fig leaf about 'anonymizing' some data, but it's trivial to reverse that and get back to a specific person due to the level of detail gathered about each individual.

If you're not paying for it, you're the product, not the customer.

When was the last time you wrote a check to Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc?
 
mattopotamus said:
They really need to be comparing numbers to their real competition in this space: Amazon.
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Yep, and that's why I'm actively looking to retire and replace my Ring doorbell system, and no longer shop at Whole Foods. Amazon is the up-and-comer on abusing and exploiting customer data.
 
GPDawes said:
What really bugs me is when I m using my mac why cant I use homekit to control lights or heating?
No I have to find my phone or watch , or turn on apple tv.
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Agreed that it's weird/silly/annoying that not all capabilities are implemented in all incarnations of Siri... but how often do you not know where your wrist is?
 
mi7chy said:
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If Apple ever wondered what the problem is with Siri, here's a great example in black and white.
 
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newdeal said:
Homekit is an abomination. I have one device which uses it, an Ecobee thermostat. Its far easier to use my echo to control it then to do anything with it through HomeKit. Also as much as I would like to buy some home automation light switches there are so few choices that will work with HomeKit it makes it just make no sense to do.
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If you only have one device, no, HomeKit is not the way to go, you are better off just using that devices app. When you have several different devices all working together, that is when Homekit shines. "Good Night" shuts off all of the lights in our house, all of them (some hue bulbs, some on iHome plug/socket switches) locks the main door to the house and turns on the white noise machine. "I'm up" is my morning scene which turns on certain lights in certain rooms so I can let the dogs out, feed the dogs and start my morning while my better half is still resting with the white noise machine one. "Good morning" is my better half's scene which raises the brightness of some lights already on from my scene, turns on other lights and turns off the white noise machine. We're still new to this, the explosion of zero to 24 devices has occurred since Christmas when we got a hue starter pack. I'm still working on getting homebridge going to pull in our Nest, Ryobi Garage Door Opener and Rachio; I also plan to start swapping some switches for certain rooms and exterior accent lighting. Most of the things I have bought so far have been on a fairly large sale (hue bulbs), or second hand (iHome plug/socket switches, Kwikset Premise, etc.), so the setup has not really set us back that much. I try to focus on products that will work with multiple platforms so that if something new comes out, resale will be easier of the current devices. I choose to use HomeKit but when I get done with these products they will work on several platforms therefore making them more desirable for the next users.
 
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MallardDuck said:
Absolutely wrong. That is *exactly* their business model, and they are exceedingly good at doing it. Google maintains individual personal profiles, monitors everything that you do, tracks you across multiple devices, and while you're right that it's not the highest bidder, they will sell that information to anyone that meets the asking price. There's a fig leaf about 'anonymizing' some data, but it's trivial to reverse that and get back to a specific person due to the level of detail gathered about each individual.

If you're not paying for it, you're the product, not the customer.

When was the last time you wrote a check to Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc?
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this is factually incorrect

Google does NOT sell your data. this has been bebunked numerous times by just about every media organization AND government agency that overseas privacy.

Yes. Google collects a LOT of data. They also do a lot of work with that data to create profiles for it's users. This part is all true. But google does NOT sell that data to anyone (as this would be a gross violation of many national laws around the world). What they sell is "ad space". They know they have X amount of users who would benefit from seeing a ad, and they sell to that ad company "we guarantee X amont of eyeballs on your ad".

stop spreading FUD on something you are woefully inadequate to talk about
 
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mtneer said:
This is like Cable TV. You may pay for 500 channels, but you only really watch only a handful. Google may have hooked up with 5000 services, but realistically if most people use a handful in the 200 that Apple supports, its covered.
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No, it's not.

Amazon is leading the field, pretty much everything works including a $8 no-brand wifi plug, within minutes I could tell Alexa to 'turn side lamp on' and off.

We used to praise Apple Store for being the biggest back in the day, it's good to acknowledge that Apple comes a distant third in this one
 
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mtneer said:
This is like Cable TV. You may pay for 500 channels, but you only really watch only a handful. Google may have hooked up with 5000 services, but realistically if most people use a handful in the 200 that Apple supports, its covered.
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"Never mind the quality, feel the width"

That was used by Tailors who used inferior material to make suits so they put extra in to mask the poor material.
The same goes for Google. Of those 5000 how many are the equivalent of 'Cat Videos'?????
 
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