Google adds support to Home for Belkin's WeMo and Honeywell devices, says Assistant on Pixel will soon be able to control smart devices
Context & Ripple Effects
In January 2017, Google Home's usefulness hinged on which devices it could talk to, and this update plugs two visible gaps: Belkin's WeMo line and Honeywell gear join the Home app, while Assistant on Pixel is positioned to control smart devices directly from the phone rather than only through the speaker. That second move matters more than it looks — it turns every Pixel into a smart-home controller, decoupling Assistant's reach from Google's own hardware footprint.
The cadence that follows shows how deliberately Google was building this out: General Electric appliances gained Assistant compatibility within months in May 2017, and by the following spring Google counted 5,000 supported devices, up from roughly 1,500 at the time of this announcement per its own May 2018 tally. This story is the early template for that compatibility land-grab.
First-order effects
- Belkin WeMo and Honeywell device owners can now route their existing switches, plugs, and thermostats through Google Home instead of separate vendor apps, making Home the default control surface for those households.
- Pixel owners gain (imminently, per Google) voice control of smart devices from the handset itself, so Assistant's smart-home utility no longer requires buying a Google speaker first.
Second-order effects
- Appliance and device makers outside the initial partner list face pressure to certify for Assistant or cede the living room — GE's rapid follow-on compatibility deal is the direct evidence of that pull.
- Third-party hardware vendors start treating Assistant as a distribution channel rather than a rival feature: within a year, speakers from Anker, Mobvoi, and Panasonic shipped with Assistant built in, extending Google's reach through competitors' products.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward Assistant as a cross-category control layer rather than a speaker feature — a trajectory Google itself confirmed years later by extending Home integration to Volvo car systems starting in 2022.
- Ecosystem breadth becomes the primary competitive metric in voice assistants, with Google publicly tracking device counts (1,500 to 5,000 in sixteen months) the way platforms once tracked app counts — locking in users whose homes accumulate incompatible-device lock-in around one assistant.
The trend: Voice assistants are competing on compatible-device breadth, evolving from single-speaker features into ambient control layers spanning phones, appliances, and eventually vehicles.