GE Microwaves Can Now Speak Google Assistant's Language

When people talk about smart homes and smart appliances, most probably imagine smart lighting, smart speakers, or maybe even smart washing machines. Few might think of connected refrigerators and fewer will probably think of ovens and microwaves. Yet that is exactly the kind of future that GE Appliances is trying to push with its Wi-Fi enabled appliances, including microwaves that can now respond to "Hey, Google".

This isn't GE's first smart microwave nor is its first time connecting it to a smart assistant. Last July, it added support for Amazon's Alexa in those small ovens and now it's doing the same with Google Assistant. And all it takes is linking the GE Appliances Kitchen app to the Google Home app.

Once that's done, you can start commanding your microwave like a head chef. Whether it's starting or stopping the microwave at will, setting a specific time, or asking it how much time is left, the integration allows you to keep your hands dirty without worrying about keeping the microwave controls clean.

GE Appliances would also like to remind consumers that it has another assistant-agnostic smart feature as well. Just scan the barcode on food packaging and it will automatically set the microwave to the ideal cooking time and power level. Presuming it knows what the food is.

GE's Wi-Fi countertop microwaves, which retail for $144, is just one of its many strategies to say in the game in this highly connected world. It was one of the first to jump on the smart lighting market and one of the early adopters of Amazon's Dash ecosystem. With this latest update, it levels the playing field between Google and Amazon so that anyone and everyone can bake their cake and eat it, too.