Comcast Wants To Make Xfinity The Center Of Your Home Automation Setup

Home automation and IoT services have been a pretty big focus of CES 2018 thus far, and Comcast wants in the action. Today Comcast announced its intention to turn its Xfinity platform into the centerpiece of a new home automation service, which will be free to existing Xfinity customers. When this roll out is finished, 15 million Xfinity customers will have access to these new home automation features.Comcast's attempt at home automation is built on technology from Stringify, a company which Comcast purchased back in September. Stringify provides "cloud-powered automation service for more than 500 IoT products and digital services," supporting brands like August, Honeywell, Carrier, GE, and Phillips Hue. The list is far longer than that, but those are just a few of the major players.

An extension of this will be Comcast's "Works with Xfinity" program, which will attract partners to launch more products compatible with Xfinity home automation. Xfinity already has hardware in place – its voice remote for X1 subscribers – to facilitate voice commands in such a home automation system. Just as well, new products like xFi WiFi service will serve as the back bone of home automation, so when you consider that Comcast already offers all the services necessary to back a home automation system, this move certainly make sense.

Comcast envisions a future where you'll be able to say "good night" into your voice remote to lock your doors and turn off your lights, or where parents get an alert when their child arrives home and their phone connects the to wireless gateway used by xFi. Of course, this service will also work with Xfinity's various security cameras, though you won't need to be a subscriber to Xfinity Security to take advantage of home automation services.

We're not sure when, exactly, this functionality will roll out to those 15 million Xfinity customers, but it isn't hard to imagine that Comcast wants to launch this relatively soon. Stay tuned for more, and be sure to check out our CES 2018 hub for more from the show!