LAS VEGAS—If you own a TiVo, you'll soon be able to control it through your Amazon Echo or Google Home. TiVo just announced Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility with its DVRs, enabling menu navigation and control with hands-free voice commands.

The Google Assistant, meanwhile, is also headed to the Dish Hopper, Joey, and Wally devices.

Alexa users will be able to control their TiVo with a new TiVo skill for Alexa, which will listen for specific voice commands like Select, Play, and Record. It's a fairly direct third-party skill that doesn't incorporate TiVo's own voice search commands into the system. Your voice becomes a TiVo remote, but it won't be a TiVo Vox remote (the new microphone-equipped remote TiVo released last year).

Google Home users will get a slightly more powerful set of voice commands for their TiVo. Google Assistant will be able to communicate directly with the connected TiVo, translating spoken phrases hands-free to the box as if they were spoken into a TiVo Vox remote. This means, once you've told Google Home to talk to your TiVo, you can use natural language to search for any upcoming programming or recordings. Google Assistant also enables multi-step activities with other smart home devices, letting you turn down the lights when you want to watch TiVo.

TiVo also announced an If This Then That (IFTTT) channel for its DVRs, which will further expand what you can do with your TiVo. IFTTT recipes will be able to trigger individual remote commands when certain conditions are met, like telling your TiVo to jump forward when it detects that a commercial is playing.

It also adds SMS and other text message support to the TiVo, letting you set up IFTTT recipes to display incoming text messages on your TV. Since IFTTT works with so many different systems and devices, this will enable extensive home automation customization beyond activities enabled by Google Assistant. The on-screen display can let you know if a home security camera detects motion, or when a smart lock is unlocked (if the camera or lock are compatible with IFTTT).

The Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT compatibility will begin rolling out to TiVo boxes over the next few months.

Google Assistant support, meanwhile, will roll out to Dish devices "in the coming months," the company said today. Those with a Hopper, Joey, or Wally can then talk to their TV when the Dish gadgets are paired with the Assistant on speakers like Google Home, Android phones, or iPhones. Dish will support multiple languages, including English and Spanish, and allow users to navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, and search TV content via voice.