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Josh.ai Is the Voice Assistant You Can Trust for Your Control4 Smart Home

Control4 homeowners have many options for controlling their smart home, from apps and touchscreens to wall keypads and remotes. An even simpler option is voice control, which Control4 makes possible through integration with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Josh.ai.

Recently, we celebrated the newly expanded partnership between Control4 and Josh.ai, which makes it easier for Control4 homeowners to enjoy Josh.ai’s advanced, natural, and contextually aware voice automation technology no matter how simple or complex their Control4 home automation system.

Still, the most critical feature that makes Josh.ai the best voice assistant for Control4 homeowners is its strong focus on privacy. Below, learn five ways Josh.ai leads in privacy-focused voice control.

Advanced Voice Activation Now Possible for Music, Lighting, and More

At Show & Tell AV Solutions, we have long been fans of Control4 home automation systems. Their integration capabilities and ease of use allow us to create custom home automation solutions in clients’ homes, making smart home experiences unique to each family and living situation. 

Control4 has led the home automation pack in innovative firsts, from customized keypads with pre-set scenes to enhanced touchscreens. Josh.ai has also been one of our favorite voice control options, allowing users to speak as if they were talking to a friend instead of imitating a robot. 

In November 2021, Control4 and Josh.ai announced an expanded partnership and an exclusive distribution agreement. To say we were excited maybe a slight understatement. The joining of these two mighty forces in smart home automation significantly ups the ante in the level of service and integration we can offer our clients. 

At the core of this partnership is new driver enhancements that create a superior experience. Let’s look at what this means for Control4 smart homes in Bountiful, UT, and the surrounding areas. 

Command Naturally

As we mentioned in the previous blog, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant require a certain order to commands and getting device names right. While they both have made strides in that area, even your four-year-old can process language better (they may not do your bidding, but we won’t go into that here). Josh.ai, on the other hand, has a handle on both the context of your commands and where you want to get something done. When you are in the living room and say, “lower the shades in 3 minutes,” it knows what room you are in and which motorized shades you mean.

Like your personal butler (which you won’t need anymore with Josh.ai), Josh can understand more than one thing at a time. And unlike your four-year-old, it will faithfully do what is asked. A compound directive like “dim the lights to 20%, turn the temperature to 73, and start Firefly Lane on Netflix” will be understood and executed without a puzzled look or a quizzical reply. This is voice control the way it should be.

SEE ALSO: Optimize Your Smart Home System with Remote Access

An App When You Want it

Sometimes it’s easier to manage something at the tap of a screen rather than by voice. Josh.ai has an elegant, intuitive companion app that lets you customize your smart home experience. Organized by rooms, it's easy to manage devices and functions in a room, and you can manage multiple properties too. A powerful personalization feature is profiles, where you can control how guests, kids, and visitors can manage specific parts of your smart home. Of course, Josh also integrates seamlessly with automation systems like Control4, so you can combine all your smart home functionality under one comprehensive control system. 

A Higher Intelligence – with Privacy

Josh.ai was designed as a voice control platform for home automation and not for other reasons. The company behind it does not gather information that can be used for marketing purposes. A unique feature of Josh is superior processing power built into the hardware that processes commands locally versus sending it to the cloud, creating a more secure and private approach to voice control. That power also lets Josh.ai learn your habits and do routine things for you, like lowering your shades on late afternoons in Bountiful, UT, to keep the sun's glare out – and that information stays in your home.

Smart Home Integration

Amazon Echo and Google Home aren’t just smart speakers; they’re smart home platforms that connect your devices so you can control everything with your voice or through their respective mobile apps. Amazon’s and Google’s voice control assistants also integrate with home automation systems like Control4 to bring the convenience of voice control to more complex smart homes.

It’s hard to find a smart home device that doesn’t integrate with Alexa or Google Assistant. Both platforms work with tens of thousands of devices that span every category: lights, locks, thermostats, video doorbells, refrigerators… you name it. And they’re adding new products all the time.

Like we mentioned, Alexa and Google Assistant work with other smart home devices and systems as well. For example, use Amazon Echo or Google Home speakers to command your Lutron lighting and shading control system, your Sonos multiroom speaker system, Nest and ecobee devices, and more.

SEE ALSO: 4 Convenient Ways to Control Your Smart Lighting System

Ease of Use

When it comes to controlling your Park City, UT smart home by voice, the more natural the commands, the better. While Alexa and Google Assistant require specific and often repetitive syntax when activating devices, Google Assistant seems to edge out Alexa in ease of use.

The Rise of Voice Control

Voice control for the smart home skyrocketed after Amazon released its first-generation Echo smart speaker in 2014. Two years later, Google followed suit with its release of the Google Home smart speaker, as did Josh.ai with its (albeit higher-end) Josh Micro smart speaker. Of the biggest players in voice control, Apple trailed in last with its HomePod smart speaker in 2018.

Out of the gate, smart speakers could do a lot. Looking specifically at DIY smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, they could stream music, set alarms and reminders, answer trivial questions, and more. It didn’t take long for manufacturers to build solutions that would also enable these speakers to be used for sending voice commands to smart home devices.

Voice Control + Home Automation

Control4, a leader in home automation systems, noticed the rising popularity of using voice commands to control smart home devices and officially announced its integration with Amazon Alexa in 2016. Today, Control4 smart homes integrate with all the big players in voice assistant technology!

Something magical happens when you pair voice control with a home automation system like Control4. Not only can you control individual devices in your Park City, UT home, like a door lock or TV, but you can also control multiple devices at once using a single verbal command.

For example, when you get home from work, tell your smart speaker to activate your Evening scene. In seconds, the lights change, the shades lower, the temperature adjusts, and your favorite music plays overhead. Control4 paired with voice control lets you enjoy the power of automation—hands-free.