You would be hard-pressed to ever describe the act of watching television as “difficult,” but even so, TiVo wants to make it easier still. For nearly two decades, the company has been making it as simple as possible for folks to enjoy their favorite entertainment by doing as little work as possible, and now, it’s taking things a step further.
At CES 2018, the company announced that you’ll soon have the ability to control your TiVo through either Amazon Eco or Google Home. That’s right, friends — controlling your DVR will soon be as easy as opening your mouth.
“If there’s one thing we’re always striving for at TiVo, it’s making your viewing experience easier, more enjoyable and all about you,” the company noted in a blog post. “With the growing popularity of smart home assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, we see the potential for TiVo to play an important role in our customers’ smart home ecosystem – one that enhances their entertainment experience through advanced, far-field voice control, and integrates with a wide range of connected devices and services via IFTTT Applets.”
This won’t be the first time TiVo adds voice commands to its platform. Last year, it released the TiVo Vox remote, a microphone-embedded remote that allows you to simply talk to your DVR. But now, you won’t even have to buy a remote to talk to your TiVo.
While it’s unclear as to the timing for either Amazon Echo device or Google Home compatibility, we do know what you’ll be able to do with either Alexa or Assistant. TiVo will soon be debuting a new Alexa skill, which will be able to hear and execute commands including Select, Play, and Record. Google Assistant, however, will have a bit more functionality, as the smart helper will be able to communicate directly with TiVo, “translating spoken phrases hands-free to the box as if they were spoken into a TiVo Vox remote,” PCMag reported.
That is to say that you can talk to Assistant as you would to a human assistant, searching TiVo for upcoming shows or recordings. Plus, Assistant will allow you to pair TiVo’s activities with those of other smart home devices. For example, you can program the lights to dim when you turn on your TV.
We’ll let you know when we hear more about when these abilities will become available.
