Canary, the startup behind the Canary All-in-One security system and the Canary Flex indoor/outdoor security camera, today added support for Google Assistant. The Google Home, the Google Home Mini and other Google-Assistant-compatible devices should now be able to communicate with both Canary cameras. Canary's All-in-One and Flex cams currently work with Amazon's Alexa speakers and other Alexa-enabled products, but only through custom rules established through Wink and IFTTT.

Like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant gives you remote control of smart home devices through voice commands and questions. Amazon's default wake word is "Alexa," though you can change it to "Amazon," "Echo" or "Computer." Google's wake phrase is either, "OK, Google," or, "Hey, Google."

At launch, your Google Assistant voice command options are fairly limited. Canary says you can ask Google for the temperature and humidity data tracked by your All-in-One Canary camera. You can also check in on the battery power remaining on your rechargeable Canary Flex camera. But that's about it. There's currently no support for turning your cameras on or off -- or pulling up a live video feed on your TV via Google Chromecast.

Canary does currently offer an Apple TV app so you can watch live camera feeds on a larger screen.

Adding Google Assistant support is a positive step for Canary, even with its restricted voice command choices. The team also tells me they are considering new voice features to be added later on, which could help make Google Assistant more useful. On the other hand, the camera maker has recently started to charge for features that used to be available for free.

A quick glance at the bottom of Canary's subscription page confirms a change to its free features. While Canary does still offer 24 hours of free clips, it's reduced the length to 10-second clips and made Night Mode available only to subscribers paying $10 per month. Here's an overview of all of the changes in a blog post on the Canary site.

Canary's Google Assistant integration is now available to all Canary camera customers, subscribers and nonsubscribers alike. While it doesn't appear to add much value for All-in-One and Flex customers today, Canary will hopefully add Chromecast support soon for viewing live video straight from your TV, as well as direct support for Amazon Alexa.