For years, the smart home space has been a clutter of different ecosystems, communication protocols, and product lines. This has made adoption slow and, in many cases, problematic for homeowners who have tried (often in vein) to get their devices to all communicate with one another. There have been some products that have helped with this task, including a number of smart hubs or other devices that tried to merge platforms. However, many have been costly and some still haven’t bridged the gap between different product lines.
Enter: Amazon’s Echo Plus, set to come out next week. The Echo Plus’s new Zigbee communication capability allows it to seamlessly pair to a large variety of smart home devices, without the need for additional hubs or other intermediaries. And because the Amazon has spent years partnering with smart product developers, the Echo Plus is really the first device intended for mass adoption that can connect such a large number of smart home devices. While other companies like Google and Apple are sure to follow, this product marks a breakthrough in smart homes and could clear one of the biggest hurdles to widespread smart home integration. Now, whether greater compatibility leads to greater energy savings remains to be seen. But it is at least one less obstacle that is in the way.
Digital Trends has a full rview of the new Echo Plus here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/smart-home-reviews/amazon-echo-plus-review/