Apple readying Google Home, Amazon Echo rival report suggests

Well, that didn’t take long. Less a week after Google announced its Home smart hub speaker system, rumours suggest that Apple’s about to do exactly the same at its own developers conference, WWDC.

The news comes courtesy of The Information and “a person with direct knowledge of the effort,” Apple’s competitor to Google Home and the originator Amazon Echo, will use Siri. The company is said to be working on an open SDK for the personal assistant too, which will allow third party companies and developers to craft additional features to the service.

Additionally, it’s not farfetched to imagine that Apple’s smart hub speaker will also connect to the company’s extensive list of services, like iCloud and iTunes, and integrate with its hardware as well.

Speaking of which, an effort to link Apple HomeKit with the device is also in the works, which could mean that users can use the smart hub to control smart home features, such as drawing curtains, switching on certain lights, and so forth.

Apple has not released a statement regarding the rumour, but it does seem plausible.

We’ll know for sure at WWDC 2016, which kicks off in San Francisco on 13 June 2016.