At CES 2018, home appliance manufacturer Whirlpool announced that more than 20 of its devices will be monitored via Apple Watch.
This can be done remotely via the watchOS app when connected to Wi-Fi. It will be possible to control washing and drying machines, as well as ovens.
Whirlpool provided some examples of the new features:
- Oven: Ability to see the cooking mode and status and change commands.
- Washing machine: The ability to see the status of the wash, as well as change modes right during the wash.
- Tumble Dryer: Drying status and control, and remaining time to finish.
This is good news for owners Apple Watch, however HomeKit still doesn't support kitchen appliances, which would make users even more excited.
Unlike Alexa from Amazon, Siri cannot control ovens, washing machines and other appliances. Although it would be nice to be able to ask HomePod to heat the oven to the correct temperature.
Apple is regularly adding new categories to HomeKit, so it is hoped that support for kitchen appliances will be showcased at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference.