What is the nature of the partnership between LightwaveRF and Google Home / Amazon Echo?

Question

I read an article recently from ft.com (dated May 21, 2017) which details the progress of the IoT company LightwaveRF. One thing I found very interesting in the article, and that is that they claim that:

Last week, LightwaveRF’s shares rose 40 per cent when it announced a partnership with Google Home and Google Assistant. It signed a similar tie-up with Amazon’s Alexa in November. Already 5,000 or so of LightwaveRF’s customers are Alexa groupies.

What is the nature of these partnerships? Should we expect LightwaveRF thermostats to start looking more like Nest Thermostats, etc., or are they simply trying to make compatibility between Amazon Echos and Google Homes etc. with their devices smoother?

Answer 1

From LightWaveRF net site:

Lightwave is now compatible with Alexa. This means that you can use compatible devices such as the Amazon Echo or Dot to command LightwaveRF devices by voice. You can now dim lights, change heating temperatures, control sockets and more without having to open the LightwaveRF App. When you want to use LightwaveRF, just say the wake word “Alexa” and the room and device that you want to control – e.g. 'Kitchen spotlights' and Echo will carry out the command.

https://www.lightwaverf.com/how-it-works/compatibility/#fndtn-lw-amazonalexa

Also:

Lightwave is now compatible with Google Home. Just ask, and Google Home will connect with your compatible Lightwave smart home devices, all without interrupting what you’re doing. You can now dim lights, control sockets and more without having to open the LightwaveRF App. When you want to use LightwaveRF, just say the wake word “Ok Google” and the room and device that you want to control – e.g. 'Kitchen spotlights' and Google Home will carry out the command.

https://www.lightwaverf.com/how-it-works/compatibility/#fndtn-lw-googlehome

Answer to question:

Cooperation is about compatibility. Aim is to get voice input without need for using their own manual remote tool for adjusting.

Answer 2

Significantly, it looks like you don't need to use the LightwaveRF hub, both the Echo and Google Home descriptions avoid mentioning the hub (which is needed if you want to use IFTTT directly for example)