Anyone seen this?
https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/google-home-expands-its-smart-home-reach-with-z-wave/
Maybe I was reading to fast, but didn’t catch if it where to get a new firmware update for controlling zwave units directly, or if it was another “hub” to connect to it to do that…
I was reading it slow and still think it’s an addon hub but the firmware update statement sure confused the heck out of me.
Amazon and Google are coming out with crazy fast features the last couple of months. Very interesting time for sure.
pffft still waiting on the promised BlueTooth on mine.
I already have the the Bluetooth and Voice calling on mine.
Go into GH app-> go to your device->open properties for your GH->Enable Preview of new firware or something. This was in an Engadget.com article the other week. And you will be getting the ready pre-release firware to test out on your device.
Wow, was that a poorly worded article! I suspect an issue of translation from the original German. (I fixed the headline on this topic so it matches what’s actually happening)
IFA is a big trade show in Europe happening this week.
“Z wave Europe” is a big retailer in Germany that is an authorized distributor for a bunch of different Z wave products as well as itself being a member of the Z wave alliance.
This retailer has a booth at IFA.
They are announcing a new module to be added to some existing Z wave controllers which will allow for a Google assistant interface. Nothing to do with Google home. Nothing coming from Google. It’s pretty much the same as any third-party manufacturer announcing that they will now have Amazon Alexa capability. Only now it’s Google Assistant.
At launch, they intend to have it working for the Popp hub, Western Digital MyCloud Smart Home System, and for Raspberry Pi, but I suspect only on the European zwave frequency just because of where it’s coming from.
You should be able to follow this on the Z wave Europewebsite once it gets closer to actual launch.
http://new.zwave.eu/index.php?id=16&L=1
So nothing about this changes what google home does. It’s just a physical hardware module that can be added to some Z wave controllers that will give them an interface to google assistant for voice control of their devices. If that means you can then use Google home, it’s because of the way Google assistant works. But it’s not a change to google home itself. It’s an update to a specific line of Z wave controllers.
I hope that helps clear up some of the confusion.
You should read the article more clearly.
Google Home will be able to send commands to the example hubs just as in case of GH ad SmartThings integration.
I.e.,
You: Hay Google…Turn on my livingroom lights.
GH: OK, Turning on 3 livingroom lights.
The article says that. But that’s just making an assumption because what they announced was google assistant integration. I don’t know if that’s enough to make it work with google home, it may be, but the change is on the Z wave device side. It’s not a change to google home.
OK, I did a little more digging.
The Google assistant in integration is coming from Zwave.me and will be added to their “Z Way” platform-- The platform which runs the popp hub, the Western Digital system that was mentioned, and the razberry Controller.
So that’s what’s getting a new Google assistant integration. Again, that may be enough to give those particular controllers Google Home integration with devices running that particular platform, I don’t know enough about how Google assistant works to say.
But it’s not a change to google home. And it won’t add the capability to Z wave controllers from any other company.
This was a feature announcement from one manufacturer which was written in such a way that it sounded like a much bigger deal. But this is basically like a company announcing an Amazon Alexa skill for their own devices.
It’s a nice feature, people who have those particular hubs will be glad to get it, but it’s not that big a deal.
Ok, thanks for the clarification 
Maybe it was just me, but this part confused me when I first was thinking it was just another hub.
“Z-Wave allows accessories to talk to each other and to the cloud without using much energy – so small devices can survive for awhile without expending much battery life. Z-way is software that will enable devices that use Z-Wave to respond to Google.”
Then i suddenly was thinking of it as a firmware/software addon on the Google Home itself.
But then it suddenly was referred to as a device again, then I just started to think that either the journalist or me was in a haze or something 
