The Amazon Echo Show 10 automatically moves its display to face the user, even if it is performing a task that doesn't need user input, like showing a recipe on the screen. Get weekly insights into the ways companies optimize data, technology and design to drive success with their customers and employees. Proactive or not, features in smart-home devices need to address a real user need, not stack the product with unnecessary and potentially confusing tools, said Ashton Udall, senior product manager at Google. The company developed sensor technology to monitor sleep, for example, because its research showed that consumers frequently forget to use or charge the wearables often employed for sleep tracking, or find the devices uncomfortable, he said. Amazon and Google hope the experiences will help them compete for users and more fully integrate their devices into people's lives.

Amazon released the first Echo Plus smart speaker/smart-home hub in 2017, and this second generation arrived a year later. What makes it "Plus" is simple: A built-in Zigbee radio. That eliminates the need to also have something like a Samsung SmartThings or a Hubitat Elevation on your network--at least to control other smart home devices that use Zigbee. We'll get deeper into that in a bit. The second-generation Echo Plus has one other minor new addition: An ambient temperature sensor, so you can ask Alexa what the temperature in the room is, in addition to getting a weather report that includes the current temperature outside.

As far as Google is concerned, there's no place like home. Ahead of its I/O Developer conference next week, Google announced that its artificial-intelligence-fused Google Assistant is now connected to more than 5,000 devices in the home, up from 1,500 in January. The idea is that you'll be able to summon the Google Assistant and issue voice commands, to preheat the oven, see who is at your front door, or dim the lights. The list of cloud-connected smart home products where the Google Assistant has an increased presence includes cameras, thermostats, security systems, vacuums, washers, and air conditioners. Of course, with the smart home rapidly emerging as one of the next key battlegrounds for tech, this very same vision is being laid out by Amazon with Alexa, Apple through HomeKit and Siri, Microsoft with Cortana, and Samsung via SmartThings and Bixby.