Google Aims at Taking Control of All of Your Connected Devices With Project Brillo

Like it or not connect devices are here to stay. In the past few years we have seen everything from small appliances to thermostats and lights being connected to create the ever widening world of the Internet of Things (IoT). Unfortunately connecting this myriad of devices are several different systems (both operating systems and applications) and standards. Making it hard to get things to work together.

Enter Google and Project Brillo, a newly announced version of Android that has been slimmed down and optimized specifically for manufactures to give you a uniform experiences across all your Internet-connected home and geek gadgets.

Brillo is "derived from Android [and] lets developers and manufacturers build connected devices," Google said. "As part of Brillo, we're introducing a communications protocol (Weave) developed in partnership with Nest, a set of developer APIs, a core set of schemas, and a certification program to ensure device and app interoperability."

The approach from Google is a simple one, there are now more than one billion Android users worldwide with Android being featured on more than 4,000 unique devices, from more than 400 manufacturers and over 500 carriers. With that, according to Gartner, IoT products are expected to boom over the next several years with more than 25 billion connected devices expected to be in use in homes and at work by 2020. 

With Project Brillo Google wants to ensure that geeks and gadget lovers everywhere have a more simplified user experience by taking control of the operating system is at the heart of each and every one of those devices.

"Our day-to-day lives will be much simpler when these technologies can talk to each other—if our recipe app, for example, could communicate with our smart oven to turn the temperature to exactly the right setting," Google said in a blog post. "​Or outside the home—from transportation systems that notify commuters of schedule changes, to farms where harvesters and irrigation systems are controlled from phones."

Brillo launches in the third quarter, while its corresponding IoT language – called Weave – is slated for Q4.