Another smart home product family has joined the Google Home parade. As of March 28, 2017, the Wink lineup is ready to take its switching, dimming, and temperature control orders from the Google Home’s Google Voice assistant.
You could already use voice commands to control Wink-linked products with a skill for Alexa, the Amazon Echo voice assistant available. Now, Google Home users can get in on the action as well.
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The first step is to hook up your Wink hub to lights, outlets and thermostats with Google Home. Be sure you have the Google Home app on your iOS or Android device. Open the Google Home app and tap the menu button in the upper left corner of the main page. Next, tap “Home Control” and then tap the “+” button in the lower right corner. Select “Wink” and enter the email and password you use with your Wink account. At this point, you’re ready to go.
Using Google Voice to control your Wink-associated smart home devices is about as simple as it could be. Using the names you assigned to various Wink controllers or switches, just remember to start each voice command with, “OK, Google.”
For example, if you have a configured Wink controller for your living room lights and you want to turn them on, just say, “OK, Google, turn living room light on.” If you want the light a bit dimmer, say, “OK Google, set living room light to 80 percent.”
Using Google Voice to control your thermostat also works with simple instructions. You can declare a specific temperature or request a change by a number of degrees. For example, just say “OK, Google, set the bedroom thermostat to 68 degrees” and the command is sent. If it’s not warm enough, just say “OK, Google, turn up the bedroom temperature by 2 degrees.”
Greater interconnectivity and control for your smart home devices increases their functional convenience. With support for both Amazon Echo’s Alexa and Google Home’ Google Voice, Wink’s hubs and controllers just gained more flexibility.
