The Google Assistant is now compatible with new appliances made by LG Electronics, as well as dozens of additional Internet of Things (IoT) devices from numerous other consumer electronics manufacturers, the Alphabet-owned tech giant announced. The latest expansion of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem was first talked about during the opening Keynote of Google I/O 2017, the latest iteration of the company’s annual developer conference that started yesterday in Mountain View, California. While the list of devices compatible with the Google Assistant is now dozens of entries longer, all of the newly supported IoT appliances and gadgets were manufactured by 11 companies.
Google’s new partners include home automation startup Hive, smart light bulbs company Wiz, and well-known networking equipment manufacturer D-Link. The Google Assistant will now be able to connect with a broad range of new devices, all of which will be controllable using the company’s voice-enabled digital companion through its Home Control feature. Apart from the Google Home variant of the AI companion, the new expansion will also include its smartphone counterpart that’s now also available on iOS devices, the Mountain View-based Internet giant confirmed. The handset version of the Google Assistant just received support for third-party actions that are further expanding its capabilities and the list of supported devices, though not all actions supported by the Google Home connected speaker will necessarily be available on smartphones. Those that currently are can be found under the Assistant Apps section of the AI app and need to be referred to by name in order to be used.
Some of the major consumer electronics companies that are currently in the process of rolling out support for third-party actions on the Google Assistant include smart irrigation company Blossom, Roomba maker iRobot, and home appliances firm GE Appliances. LG Electronics is debuting support for the Google Assistant with its Signature product lineup and is expected to debut more compatible devices in the near future, as well as update its existing portfolio with support for the Google-made voice-enabled helper. An update on Google’s efforts to expand its AI ecosystem in an effort to compete with the likes of Alexa and Siri is expected to follow in the coming months.