When Johnson Controls announced GLAS back at CES, the flagship feature of the $319 translucent smart thermostat was its integration with Microsoft’s Cortana smart assistant. Now Cortana has company: ahead of its upcoming August 24th release date, the company has announced that GLAS will support Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, too — but there’s a catch.
ONLY CORTANA ON THE DEVICE ITSELF
GLAS itself does feature a built-in microphone and speaker, which will let users talk to and interact with Cortana straight from the device. But only Cortana is getting those privileges — users will still be able to use Alexa and Assistant through skills to control the temperature in their homes through GLAS, but you’ll need to use another device like an Echo or Google Home to do it.
I really like Cortana but I just don’t see it taking off for Microsoft. They are capturing a very small market share compared to Google, Siri or Alexa.