Alexa, meet Siri: Silicon Valley heavyweights join hands to make your smart home smarter

Three of the biggest tech companies announced plans to help make your smart home smarter. But can they really make all your devices sync?

Amazon, Apple, and Google found themselves in the same space yesterday — and it wasn’t to defend themselves in a congressional hearing.

Alexa, meet Siri: Silicon Valley heavyweights join hands to make your smart home smarter

In a rare show of solidarity, the 3 tech giants and other members of the Zigbee Alliance announced plans to work together to solve one of the peskier problems in tech — getting smart home technology to live up to its name.

A Ring and a Circle might sound the same…

But like so many of your so-called connected devices — from your smart locks to your smart thermostat to your smart toothbrush — their IQs drop when they try to interact.

Engineers in Seattle, Cupertino, and Mountain View are trying to change that.

Their big idea?

  • Bring the best minds in tech together to allow all your disparate devices to sync.

But do I really want Big Tech controlling all my switches?

Some people are creeped out by how much data smart devices know about us (Alexa, stop listening). And not everyone’s buying the stuff, in part over fears of being hacked, as several Ring home security systems were this month.

Amazon and the others hope to develop cooperative hardware that presumably would make interlinking the devices safer.

How will this play out in my house?

IKEA, another member of the alliance, has already partnered with Amazon, Apple, and Google.

  • The Swedish furniture maker has introduced wireless blinds, speakers that double as shelves, and chargers embedded in nightstands and desk lamps.

We just want someone to figure out how to make smart dinner.

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