Google will now let any AI agent run your smart home

Google is opening up its smart location to AI agents, letting devices for illustration Claude and Open Claw entree and power your connected devices and analyse your home’s information utilizing the standardized Model Context Protocol.

Google Home MCP is simply a caller integration that lets third-party AI agents power and show your smart location and enactment connected your behalf. It “allows immoderate AI agents that support MCP, including Google Antigravity, Claude, Hermes aliases Open Claw, to securely activity pinch each of the devices and arena history successful your Google Home ecosystem,” Taylor Lehman, group merchandise head astatine Google Home & Nest, said successful a blog post.

According to Lehman, Home MCP integration will link your AI supplier of prime to real-world events, enabling features for illustration cross-camera study — truthful you could inquire your supplier what your kid did erstwhile they sewage location from schoolhouse — aliases utilizing instrumentality authorities history to fig retired really galore loads of laundry you did past week aliases really agelong the lights were near on. It will besides let your supplier to interact pinch you via voice, for example, by sending an audio connection complete your Google Home speaker erstwhile it has vanished a task. You tin besides person your supplier create a civilization dashboard to power your Google Home.

This doesn’t switch Google’s new Gemini for Home assistant, which remains Google’s interface for interacting pinch Google Home done the Home app and Google Nest smart speakers, pursuing the demise of Google Assistant. Instead, MCP integration adds different furniture of control, allowing third-party AI agents to interact straight pinch devices connected to Google Home done their ain interfaces.

Giving an AI supplier entree to real-world devices for illustration smart locks, thermostats, and halfway infrastructure for illustration HVAC systems and appliances raises evident questions astir security, privacy, and safety. Google says Home MCP enforces complaint limits and information protections; for example, it won’t let an supplier to unlock doors. However, depending connected your agent, “connecting it to Home MCP tin consequence successful unexpected aliases moreover undesired behavior,” said Lehman, who recommends reviewing Google’s developer policies and terms of service.

Home Assistant, an open-source smart location platform, has implemented a akin MCP integration that shows what you tin do erstwhile you springiness an supplier entree to your smart location system. I tested this past twelvemonth to usage Claude to vibe-code my smart home, and it easy handled immoderate of the much analyzable tasks that astir interfaces — and users, for that matter — struggle with, including troubleshooting, creating automations, designing a dashboard, and mounting up much precocious configurations, each utilizing earthy language.

The biggest alteration present isn’t that Google Home tin now move your lights connected and disconnected done your Claude app; it’s that Claude — aliases your supplier of prime — has entree to the underlying information and power furniture of your home. It’s a measurement toward building a full location machine for your smart home that tin understand what’s happening successful it, logic crossed its history, and return action connected your behalf. And if this past week wasn’t dominated by headlines astir really AI will termination america all, I’d beryllium really excited.

Still, location are existent advantages to giving an AI supplier entree to your smart home. It tin logic crossed the information your location generates and enactment connected it successful ways accepted smart location systems mostly can’t, moving the smart location from bid and power toward thing much contextual and proactive, person to existent intelligence. A strategy that tin troubleshoot a device, propose improvements to automations, and way and place patterns crossed your location is overmuch much useful than 1 that conscionable says “I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” With Home MCP integration, Google is bringing these capabilities into Google Home.

While consumer-facing devices for illustration Claude will beryllium useful for smart location tinkerers, the bigger image present is Google’s developer play. Over the past mates of years, Google has progressively positioned itself arsenic the smart home’s infrastructure layer. It launched API entree to its smart home successful 2024 and much precocious made Gemini for Home a full-stack AI offering. All of this points toward a much B2B2C strategy: Google tin supply the AI and smart location infrastructure while other companies build consumer-facing services and products connected top.

With this week’s announcement, Google has besides opened a way for developers to usage its agentic Antigravity coding tool to build civilization AI agents for the smart location that pat into Google Home instrumentality information and power layer. But moreover if developers usage a different agent, arsenic agelong arsenic they’re utilizing Google Home, it’s a triumph for Google. This way, Google becomes the smart location infrastructure layer, successful overmuch the aforesaid measurement AWS became infrastructure for net and package businesses.

Whether smart location developers will bargain into Google’s promises present is simply a large question. Based connected the number of smart location platforms the institution has launched and fto dice complete the years — Android @ Home, Weave, Project Brillo, Works pinch Nest, Google Assistant — developers will person to determine whether Google has yet settled connected a smart location level it intends to instrumentality with.