Josh.ai launches ‘almost invisible’ competitor to Amazon Echo

Josh.ai is trying to find a place in the voice assistant industry. Its intelligent assistant is designed to be installed by professionals alongside other health home automation products.

Josh.ai unveils Josh Nano

The device, Josh Nano, fits fully into a more luxurious niche focused on the health home. The visible part of his device seems a little bigger than a two euro coin. Although most of the device is recessed into the wall itself and smart health connected to a central unit by an Ethernet cable.

The device includes a set of four microphones, without any on-board speaker. It integrates directly into the user’s sound system. Josh Nano prides itself on being compatible with most of the major AV receiver manufacturers. But also to have concluded partnerships with companies like Sonos. There is not much else in the device. A light for visual feedback, a versatile touch sensor and a physical switch to cut power to the on-board microphones

The goal of this new hardware is to disguise the smart features of a health home and move away from standard touch screens; most of which are outdated interfaces. By reducing the essential characteristics of a health home automation product, Josh.ai hopes to be able to inspire more users to buy with confidence. Knowing that later versions of the hardware will not make their devices obsolete and ugly. The start-up is now offering pre-orders for the device. She hopes to start shipping it early next year.

More information on this competitor to the Amazon Echo

Power for these devices comes from a product the company calls Josh Core. It’s a small server that basically acts as a hub for whatever Josh talks to in the user’s health home. Thus ensuring that interactions between smart health home devices can occur locally. Thus, this minimizes external demands. The startup will also continue to sell its Josh Micro product, which integrates a dedicated speaker into the wall hardware.

Although Josh.ai works in direct partnership with professional installers on hardware, the startup has grown as a software company. Thus, it licenses consumers to their technology on an annual basis; but also for five years or for life. The price for this license also varies depending on the size of the house they are operating with.

“Small” deployments are classified as houses with less than 15 rooms. As for the cost of the hardware, Josh.ai says the price varies, but for most jobs the average cost to users is around $ 500 per part.

Josh.ai is gonna spill a lot of ink

Large tech companies naturally design their products for a very wide audience. For start-ups like Josh.ai, this fact makes it possible to design products that are not designed for the common needs of a billion users. In fact, the selling point of a lot of their customers comes largely from the fact that they don’t buy devices from Google, Amazon, or Apple and wired microphones that allow them to communicate with the inside their house.

Although 95% of the startup’s business today is focused on the residential sector, the company also wants to extend the use of its technology to business scenarios such as conference rooms or even elevators, the company tells me. start-up.

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