After Apple officially joined the smart speaker battlefield with its HomePod launch, Microsoft has finally strengthened Cortana’s capability in the smart home context.
After Apple officially joined the smart speaker battlefield with its HomePod launch, Microsoft has finally strengthened Cortana’s capability in the smart home context.
Some new manufacturers have joined the Cortana-compatible list, including Ecobee, Honeywell, TP-Link, Geeni and LIFX. Users who own thermostat of Ecobee or Honeywell’s Lyric and Total Connect Comfort models can start to ask the voice assistant to set the room temperature to 72 degrees.
Or for example, since both Geeni’s smart bulbs and power products work with Cortana, users are able to name and control each power outlet separately or in groups. When they say “Hey Cortana, turn off the living room lamps,” then all outlets that’s grouped into the “living room lamps” will be turned off.
More, Cortana is now working with IFTTT, a free platform now helps 600 services and apps connect together. The integration even enables users to customize their own phrases to use with services on IFTTT. For instance, “Hey Cortana, let there be light” can be the trigger command for turning all lights off in the house.
Applets, a series of motion triggers on IFTTT platform, can also create other possibilities for Cortana users. For example, a command “Hey Cortana, movie time” could turn down the Philips Hue lights, turn on the Harmony TV set the Nest thermostat to the comfortable temperature.
Microsoft launched its first smart speaker, Harmon Kardon Invoke, last fall for $199, and cut the price into half due to the harsh competition against Amazon Echo and Google Home. The first smart home support came around this time as well, which Cortana started to support Samsung SmartThings, Nest, Philips Hue, Wink and Insteon.
It’s hard to say that consumers will purchase more Cortana-powered speakers for these updates, however, the feature benefits the smart home owners who only has a Windows 10 PC at home and wants to experience the power of voice-control.