Logitech Harmony smart home hub supports Amazon Alexa

The Logitech Harmony smart home hub will now work with voice commands through Amazon's Alexa. Logitech announced that people using Amazon's Echo devices can use the Alexa assistant to control devices connected through the Harmony hub. This seems like a circuitous route to implementing voice controls, but many consumers are now accustomed to using Amazon's voice assistant. Amazon does not have its own smart home suite of devices, though, and instead has relied mostly on third parties to make their devices work with Alexa.

Since Harmony links up with a wide variety of devices, this could be a powerful new way of controlling a smart home. Each device doesn't have to be able to talk with the Amazon Echo. Instead, the Echo talks with Harmony, which then can distribute commands to any compatible device. Compatible Harmony Activities include things like turning on the television or lights or even bringing up certain apps, like Netflix, on the television. These are just some common examples. Logitech says Harmony has 270,000 compatible devices that could be used through Harmony Activities and Alexa.

By making Harmony compatible with Amazon Alexa, Logitech has found a way to get around a limitation of the device. It also keeps Logitech from having to develop its own voice-recognition digital assistant. The combination makes the Amazon Echo more than a traditional smart home hub, as well. By being able to work with other hubs, Alexa becomes a more powerful smart home assistant than it would be if just limited to the devices that work directly with the Echo. The team-up shows the importance of compatibility and possible ways to get around certain limitations. The plethora of ZigBee and Z-Wave smart home gateways could similarly be empowered with the right compatibility.