(Photo Credit: Francis Scialabba)

Three competing companies team up to make connecting smart home devices easier

On most days, Apple, Google, and Amazon are fierce rivals. However, just in time for the holidays, the three tech giants appear to be cooperating to make smart home technology more compatible among different devices.

“In recent years, the tech giants have been fiercely vying for dominance over smart home tech–with Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant often considered to have carved up the lion’s share of products,” the BBC reported. “Manufacturers have often had to choose a particular voice assistant with which to make their device compatible–a smart speaker that ‘works with Alexa’ but not Siri, for instance.”

However, the three tech companies are apparently collaborating to make customers’ lives easier. They announced they are forming an alliance called the Zigbee Alliance, which includes several other corporations, including IKEA and Samsung.

“The goal of the Connected Home over IP project is to simplify development for manufacturers and increase compatibility for consumers. The project is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use,” the companies said in a press release. “The project aims to make it easier for device manufacturers to build devices that are compatible with smart home and voice services such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and others. The planned protocol will complement existing technologies, and Working Group members encourage device manufacturers to continue innovating using technologies available today.”