Besides Apple, Amazon and Google, another player has entered the field of smart home voice control. American cable company Comcast announced it is adding voice control capability to let users control home lighting by simply saying “Xfinity Home lights on.”
Besides Apple, Amazon and Google, another player has entered the field of smart home voice control. American cable company Comcast announced it is adding voice control capability to let users control home lighting by simply saying “Xfinity Home lights on.”
The voice command skills come with Comcast’s new support to Jasco’s GE-branded in-wall smart light switches and plugs as well as Sengled’s Element Touch smart light bulbs.
With ‘Xfinity Home,' Comcast’s smart home platform, users can just hold down the microphone button on their Xfinity remote and speak a command to control the lights. Of course, they can also manage the lights via the Xfinity Home app.
Jasco and Sengled are the latest third-party companies joining Xfinity Home. The platform already supports smart locks of August, garage controllers of Chamberlain, wireless controllers and dimmers of Lutron and Nest Learning Thermostats. Comcast has also built its own products for the platform, such as Wi-Fi-connected home security camera xCam.
The latest official number on Xfinity Home users, published by Comcast last summer, amount to more than 500,000. About 60 percent of Xfinity Home customers use the service as included in the company’s Internet, TV, phone and home security package.
Compared to other voice command assistants, such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant, Comcast has not yet poured extensive resources to develop voice control. Rather, voice control is one of the pieces of Comcast’s smart home puzzle.
The company holds an advantage to go into the smart home market – its service already exists in many people’s houses. The bundled service package can attract people to opt into smart home as they look for Internet and TV services.
Comcast isn’t competing with Amazon Echo or Google Home in the smart home market, but with home service providers such as AT&T, Verizon and ADT.