Like last year’s event, CES 2024 is all about Matter, and Google isn’t missing a beat, announcing in a blog post its plans to beef up TVs with Matter-compatible Google Home software.
While Google’s smart home developments, both in terms of hardware and software, have slowed significantly in recent years, the brand played a pivotal role in creating the Matter standard.
As such, it doesn’t seem all that surprising that Google is increasing the options consumers have for setting up and controlling their smart home; That is until you consider that this move could make Google’s own Nest hubs obsolete.
New year, new home center
In a blog post, Google announced its plans to transform LG TVs into Matter-compatible Google Home hubs, as well as select Google TVs and other devices running the Android TV operating system. Right now, there’s only a vague timeline of “later this year,” according to a press conference held by LG earlier this week, which also noted that users will be able to “view, control and manage LG and Google Home devices from TVs or the ThinQ app.”
This news comes after Samsung’s announcements that SmartThings will have an enhanced TV experience this year, so there’s clearly a real push to break out smart home ecosystems starting with the best smart speakers and displays.
While Google briefly referenced its existing home hub hardware in the blog post, it was hardly an honorable mention acknowledging its existence. Realistically, though, this announcement means that Google Home fans who aren’t particularly interested in Nest devices will no longer need one to control their smart homes.
Google heading to the cemetery?
Now, let’s briefly talk about the future of Google’s smart home. It’s been almost three years since we’ve seen new Google hubs, and while I was excited for a while about the big news coming, I’m feeling increasingly nervous, especially considering some of Google’s Fitbit news this year. anus. that there may be trouble ahead for Google smart home fans.
In 2023 alone we saw more features removed from Google hubs than added, especially compared to Amazon’s expanding range of skills and Apple’s somewhat stagnant but solid approach.
For example, the Sleep Sensing feature mentioned above was free to preview throughout 2023, but in 2024 Google plans to integrate it into Fitbit Premium, a subscription-based service. Support for some features in Zoom and Meet ended in September, Dropcam support ended in April, and a number of other Google Assistant voice apps also received support.
Now, there could be a number of reasons why the development of Google’s smart home labs has slowed down. Google’s Gemini LLM could be a big factor here, as the tech giant potentially competes to develop the most advanced smart assistant possible, but that doesn’t necessarily explain some of the more conservative decisions made by Google in recent months.
Personally, I’m very excited to see TVs getting more involved in smart home shenanigans; After all, they are the central axis around which much of home life revolves. I just hope it’s not at the expense of the Nest hubs.
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