Apple, Google, Amazon, Zigbee Alliance Working Together On A New Project

Major digital assistants could work together on a common technology standard under a certain initiative, according to tech giants Amazon Apple, Google, and several other industry partners that plan to allow more smart home assistants to communicate with one another. The goal of the initiative is to enable developers to develop new products without the need to pay for royalties of connectivity software. Additionally, it wants to enable consumers to select their preferred voice assistants on their devices.

Dubbed as "Project Connected Home over IP" will function to create a new standard for smart home so consumers can purchase products that will work with the kind of system they have. Consumers will be able to identify if the product is developed and supported by "Project Connected Home over IP" through a logo on the gadget boxes.

The new project will concentrate on the physical safety of smart home devices. This includes CO sensors, smoke alarms, security systems, smart doors and locks, HVAC controls, window shades, and electrical plugs before exploring other commercial solutions and types of devices. At present, the group is working on releasing preliminary open-source materials and draft specifications in the late part of 2020.

The project is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use.

By building upon Internet Protocol (IP), the project aims to enable communication across smart home devices, mobile apps and cloud services and to define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification.

The project intends to use contributions from market-tested smart home technologies from Amazon, Apple, Google, Zigbee Alliance, and others.

This latest smart home connectivity standard will work with all major platforms such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and others. In theory, this new initiative could help minimize the deviation between which smart home devices are compatible with which kinds of platforms. At present, the Connected Home over IP project is in its early stages of development.