By will-buy
iRobot has augmented its Roomba vacuums with Apple Siri voice commands as part of the new iRobot Genius 4.0 Home Intelligence software. Roomba already featured Alexa and Google Assistant connections and voice control, however the platform widens the options to encompass a Siri Shortcut integration indigenous to the Roomba app.
Siri Roomba
Siri is limited to some basic listing of Roomba voice commands at this time, allowing users to start and stop, stop and resume, and send home the robotic vacuum. Google Assistant and Alexa understand commands to wash specific rooms, in comparison. Future updates can give Siri comparable flexibility, including custom phrases picked by users. Having said that, the native integration means setting up Siri voice commands within the iRobot Home app doesn’t require Apple Shortcuts app.
iRobot continues to be steadily pursuing voice assistant integration for half a decade since it first added some Alexa voice commands. Since that time, Roomba has deepened the Alexa and Google Assistant conversational AI connection. That resulted in Alexa gaining proactive cleaning features in November. Using Alexa Hunches, the voice assistant could activate Roombas when and where the AI calculated would be best. For instance, just starting out the vacuum when owners were likely to be out of the home or perhaps in rooms it knows aren’t in use at the moment. Roomba also enabled Alexa Announcements, prompting the Alexa-enabled devices to tell owners about problems or once the vacuuming was complete.
The new collaboration follows Siri’s partnership with iRobot rival Roborock, though the list of Siri-compatible third-part smart home devices continues to be relatively short when compared with Alexa and Google Assistant’s partners. The iRobot Genius upgrade includes other new and improved features. iRobot added a don't disturb setting, child and pet locks, adjustable room cleaning preferences. The software also extends the present Roomba smart mapping feature towards the entry-level i3 Roombas.
“The beauty of iRobot Genius is the fact that our robots get smarter over time and continuously provide customers with new methods to clean where, when and how they need. As iRobot develops new features and experiences, the updates are pushed to customers’ robots at no cost,” iRobot chief product officer Keith Hartsfield said. “From the day a person welcomes a Roomba robot vacuum or Braava jet robot mop into their home, they already know they’ll always benefit from new features and functionality. They are also getting a robot that actually works harder for them, so that they don’t have to. Using more than 60 million personalized recommendations provided to people to date, our robots have been proven to learn, respect and work around individual schedules and needs.”
