This week, Josh.ai held a significant launch of several new products, app improvements, and new integrations as it continues its journey from a voice interface into a full system control provider. While a voice update was part of this announcement, it felt deemphasized as the company pursued a greater role in the industry as a full control solution provider by launching a richer app user experience (UX), the introduction of a touch panel interface, and a round of new integrations.
See more on the Josh.ai announcements
In a special web-based presentation this week, Josh.ai had several announcements that combined to create the picture of a company seeking a larger role in the custom integration realm. I’ve sensed them moving in this direction in the past, but it became much more obvious in this round of announcements.
I should probably point out that the folks at Josh.ai may take exception to my characterization of what this launch represents. They would probably tell you that they remain committed to the voice interface as the center of all they do and, in fact, at this event they launched 19 new voices that they say are “AI-generated.” But in my view, this was a small part of the overall presentation – and one that just represented an extension of the existing voice option.
Five Key Announcements from Josh.ai This Week
What did Josh announce at this event? There were a total of five announcements. Some of these were more significant than others.
- Josh.ai Experience on the AVA Cinema Remote
- Redesigned “Areas” page on the Josh.ai app
- Natural AI Voices
- Touchscreen control panel
- Nimble DevSuite
Our mission at Josh is to try to make the home really simple, really safe and private, and really delightful to go about your day. Whether you’re controlling your music and lighting, your shades, your video content or anything else you want, we want to use AI, machine learning, and a really great technology to transform the way that you live in your space.
Alex Capecelatro, Josh.ai Founder and CEO
So let’s take a look at each of these announcements. I’m going to review them in the order they were presented. You may want to pay attention to that as it gives you a sense of the relative importance of each of these items.
JOSH.AI EXPERIENCE ON THE AVA REMOTE
First up in the presentation is the new AVA Cinema Remote. Apparently undeterred by the Snap One lawsuit against them, Josh.ai has again partnered with AVA to create “…a completely integrated handheld experience.” Or as Scotty Allen put it, “The Josh team has, since CEDIA [Expo] spent the last five months working on a customized Josh experience for this piece of hardware.”
Much of what Allen presented was centered around the new capabilities that are now available thanks to the folks at AVA who reconceived what a remote should be (I highlighted this remote in my post of top stories from CEDIA Expo ’23). This new remote includes a neat touch/mechanical control blend that dynamically adjusts menus and screens to offer appropriate options based on the path and pattern of your previous responses. The AVA remote also offers tactile feedback for a more interactive experience.
Josh.ai has created an interface for the remote that is more Josh-specific to reflect an enhanced level of control for its devices. For example, there will be a dedicated “Speak to Josh” microphone to allow a PTT (push to talk) access to the Josh voice control system. It sounds a lot like the Josh app, specially modified for the AVA Cinema Remote.
REDESIGNED ‘AREAS’ VIEW ON JOSH APP
Capecelatro then ran through a series of incremental app updates. There were several that were designed to balance ease of use with control granularity. Emblematic of that is a redesigned “Areas” page, which Alex spent some time demoing.
First off, when you touch the Areas button at the top of the main screen, you get a colorful view of the major areas of the home and/or installation. This is designed to help you quickly locate what it is you are looking to control or adjust. Like many menus, there is a nested pattern of selections that take you deeper into the view to get to where you want to go.
In the alternative to that view, the company has cleverly added the ability to start with a fully un-nested version of Areas with more sub-areas exposed on the same page. This allows you to more quickly select where you want to go. It may be a more cluttered-looking screen, but it saves you steps or screen taps.
Alex also went through a series of other updates, including the special Josh GPT button that gets you more information on movies or music, a new Channels button for quick access to programming on video, and the like.
AI VOICES
Bridgett Carroll, a technical sales engineer for Josh.ai introduced the new AI Voices. In a nutshell, the company has added 19 new voice options for your voice interface with the system. There is a plethora of options for style of speaking, male/female, accent (one British, why they didn’t name him Jeeves escapes me), and more.
Of these new 19 voice options, Carroll said, “Each [of the 19 new voice options] offers a realistic sound quality and a variety of accents… The addition of these new voices stems from our belief that every home is unique and your experience within it should be tailored to you. With these new voices, we are providing you with the ability to craft your own unique Josh experience.”
Up until now, you’ve had 10 voice options to choose from. Now you have 29. Seems like overkill to me, but this was one of the new announcements at the event this year.
8″ TOUCHSCREEN CONTROL PANEL
Next up, Tyler Bogart, Josh Western Territory Sales Manager, introduced his segment by saying, “I’m thrilled to present a game-changing addition to our product lineup.” That game-changer is a touchscreen control panel. With all due respect to Team Josh.ai, this may be a game-changer for them, but integrators have been installing such panels for decades – it may be a nice addition but it is not really a game-changer for integrators.
Although Tyler called it “revolutionary” – and I’m sure they did choose a decent piece of hardware – like everything Josh, the differentiator is really the company’s unique operating system. “We’ve crafted a custom UI specifically optimized for our purpose-built touchscreen,” Bogart said. “This tablet has been designed for room-level control, ensuring that wherever it’s placed quick access to the devices in that room is guaranteed, all while allowing seamless whole home control, like our iOS and Android apps.”
It really looks like a tablet-optimized version of the usual Josh interface. The tablet has an 8″ IPS screen, requires no back-box, mounts in a single-gang space and is powered by PoE (power over Ethernet). It also features a built-in microphone for the same PTT voice control capability mentioned with the AVA Cinema Remote above.
Dealers can pre-order the tablet now, pricing was not provided in this presentation.
NIMBLE DEVSUITE & INTEGRATIONS
And finally, the company announced the creation of its Nimble DevSuite. The company says that the Nimble DevSuite is a “new integration platform focused on propelling the future of interoperability in the smart home…” It is said to be based on “…open source technologies…” and “…built to support a variety of platforms and protocols.” They also say they are “…building a foundation for working with technologies like Matter and Home Assistant.”
Whatever that all means, it is designed to turbocharge the creation of an expanding number of technology and product integrations. To make that point, the company announced a plethora of new integrations including an interesting first one – Shelly. Shelly, a DIY (Do It Yourself) platform of switches, relays, and sensors has a large fan base of DIY-ers, but is still working on trying to increase its penetration with professional integrators. Many integrators are skeptical of DIY lines, so a curious first choice by Josh.
Other integrations make perfect sense, such as August & Yale locks; Honeywell & Nest thermostats; Hunter Douglas motorized shades; Nanoleaf & Wiz “fun” lighting; Anthem A/V receivers; Hearth & Home fireplaces; and its largest integration yet, Vantage lighting, shades, switches, and thermostats.
A Glitzy, Well-Run Series of Announcements
Josh.ai is the embodiment of what I always tell clients of my The Stratecon Group consultancy – it’s not just what you do…but how you do it that counts. This presentation was clean, scripted, and well run. However, in retrospect, many – if not most – of these announcements were incremental advances.
Still, it was entertaining and demonstrated the company remains committed to growing its footprint…and influence…in the custom integration industry.
Learn all about Josh.ai by visiting josh.ai.
I think Josh.ai missed a huge opportunity by not including far-field microphones on the touchscreen. It could have been a hugely differentiated offering that would justify switching over existing competing touchscreens, but instead it’s just another touchscreen with a nice UI.