Unplug, relax and let your voice take control

Connected appliances and household appliances are offered by most manufacturers in the industry today, and usually mean that the products can communicate with each other as well as with the user's mobile phone. Connectivity has brought a number of new opportunities for consumers to simplify their lives at home, for example, controlling their products with their voice.

Turn on or off the TV, adjust the indoor temperature, keep track of when the food is ready or why not change the playlist for the evening music? With voice-controlled products in the home, we can promise that everyday life will be even smoother! Several of APPLiA's member companies have connected products with voice control. Including Electrolux which allows ovens, washing machines, air purifiers and robot vacuum cleaners to be controlled with your voice. For safety reasons and in accordance with EU regulations, voice control of Electrolux ovens is first activated via the remote control and then you can control the settings with your voice.

Despite the rapid advancement of technology, there are still some limitations. Electrolux explains that all commands must start with ”Ok Google” or ”Hey Google” and that you can only give one command at a time. So you can’t say ”Ok Google, turn on the oven and set the temperature to 175 degrees” but must say ”Ok Google, turn on the oven” and then ”Ok Google, set the temperature to 175 degrees”.

Also Siemens has connected products that, among other things, allow the kitchen to adapt to your routines, give you recommended recipes directly to your oven and enable control of appliances from your mobile phone via the Home Connect app.

Siemens writes that with a smart speaker you can control your kitchen products with both Alexa and Google. A voice command is all it takes to start the dishwasher, turn on the range hood or ask the oven when the food is ready. And Siemens' connected, voice-controlled ovens can make cooking easier when your hands are full, because you can tell the oven to open the door, and it will.

Home Connect is on the same track, and on their homepage They highlight that your little home assistant can come in handy in the kitchen, as you often have both hands full when working around the house. You can have your recipes read to you, heat up the oven or start the washing machine via voice command, but your voice assistant can not only help you with cooking and washing - if you want, it can talk to you about the weather or other topics. From simple dialogues to distinctly personal interactions with Alexa and connected products - Alexa listens to your needs and does its best to make your household chores easier.

Voice control via, for example, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa is a part of everyday life for some people. For those of you who have not yet taken the step to voice control of products, inside and outside the home, here is a list of some of the benefits.

Fast steering and control

It is faster to give a voice command to the products than to control them via mobile or tablet, which usually requires you to first unlock the device, find the right application and then manually set the command and navigate the menus.

Free your hands!

Don't use your hands to control your electronics. With voice control, you can keep your hands free or busy while controlling settings on speakers and various other products.

Rest your gaze on something else.

When you communicate through speech to your connected products, you no longer need to use the display to interact. This is not only an advantage when driving, but also allows you to easily control the lighting in a room, for example, without taking your eyes off the book you are reading.

Text: Ola Larsson

APPLiAnytt