The Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice contol is the first third-party device announced that natively support's Apple's Siri.

Apple has clearly decided it needs to open up Siri support to more devices and services to succeed in smart home, while the company says it will also introduce on-device Siri voice processing to improve performance and further address privacy concerns. 

There's no doubt that both Siri itself and the HomeKit ecosystem have fallen into third place behind the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant smart home ecosystems. 

Now Apple wants to power up the options for using Siri with other devices as well as the capabilities of its HomeKit/Home app system. 

The functionality is coming "later this year" and will also apply to existing. Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control devices. You also need an Apple HomePod or HomePod mini and, as you'd expect, it'll activate with the usual "Hey Siri" voice command.

We're still expecting Apple to replace the now discontinued original HomePod at some point with HomePod 2, especially since Apple seems keen to expand its smart home functions of the HomePod mini. Whereas the original HomePod focused on sound, it now seems like the focus has shifted onto being a smart home hub like an Amazon Echo or Google Home device. 

Apple confirmed it will also support the Matter interoperability standard which also has the support of Amazon, Google and Samsung. It also announced HomeKeys, which can put a hotel or home lock key in your Apple Wallet

ecobee SmartThermostat