Windows 10 Adds Home Smart Device Support

Microsoft is slowly repositioning its Cortana personal assistant as a home management service. To that end, Windows 10 users are now able to command home smart devices through Cortana’s new Connected Home console. As a result, Windows users can control smart heating, lighting, and home security from their PC or smartphone.  At the moment, Connected Home is compatible with Wink, Insteon, Nest, SmartThings, and Hue.

Windows 10 – Home Smart Device Support

According to Windows Central, Connected Home is rolling out to Windows 10 users – both PC and Mobile – right now.

Windows Central reports:

“A lot of what Cortana can do can be customized or enabled through the Cortana Notebook, a sort of settings menu where you can tell Cortana what to keep track of for you as well as enable integrations with different services. New to the menu is a recently added “Connected Home” section, where users can now sign in to different smart home services to allow Cortana to control smart devices around their house.

As of right now, Connected Home only works with five services: Wink, Insteon, Nest, SmartThings, and Hue. Once toggled on, you can sign in to each service to allow Cortana to help you manage devices linked to each service. For example, connecting to your Hue account will allow Cortana to control your Hue lights. Ditto with your thermostat, should you choose to enable the Nest integration.”

To compete with the likes of Amazon Alexa, Windows is also preparing to launch the Cortana-powered Invoke speaker. A Microsoft Store page for the speaker – built by Harman Kardon – briefly launched yesterday, according to The Verge. The page listed the price as $199.