Apple, Google, Amazon eye common standard for smart home devices

Will Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and Google Assistant finally get along? The major digital assistants could operate on a common technology standard under a plan announced Wednesday by Amazon, Apple and Google and other industry partners that aims to enable more smart home devices to speak to each other.

The goal of the plan would be to allow developers to build new products without paying royalties for connectivity software, and enabling consumers to then choose their preferred voice assistants on the devices.

The project "aims to improve the consumer experience of trying to use smart home products that aren't compatible with each other," according to a statement by the new working group.

"We believe that the protocol has the potential to be widely adopted across home systems and assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, and others."