{"id":10274,"date":"2017-12-01T15:43:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T23:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.hellotech.com\/?p=10274"},"modified":"2021-06-30T07:56:50","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T14:56:50","slug":"alexa-update-adds-depth-expanding-smart-home-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hellotech.com\/blog\/alexa-update-adds-depth-expanding-smart-home-powers","title":{"rendered":"Alexa Update Adds Depth to Her Expanding Smart Home Powers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Amazon\u2019s massively popular AI has been getting updates&nbsp;quickly.&nbsp;Alexa has become ubiquitous in smart homes everywhere<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-alexa-s-new-features\">Alexa\u2019s New Features<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Built into Amazon\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hellotech.com\/blog\/which-amazon-echo\">expanding line of smart devices<\/a>, we\u2019ve known the AI to be capable of setting a reminder, helping with your shopping, searching the Web, or playing music at your command. More importantly, Alexa can control your smart home devices. In recent months, the retail giant added three new features that let you do much more than control individual IoT (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jacobmorgan\/2014\/05\/13\/simple-explanation-internet-things-that-anyone-can-understand\/#478124f81d09\">Internet of Things<\/a>) devices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-room-awareness\">Room awareness<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With this feature, you can assign specific devices to individual smart speakers. This makes Alexa contextually aware of which connected devices are nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-routines\">Routines<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You can now create customized commands to control several smart devices simultaneously with this update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-schedules\">Schedules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To save you the hassle of commanding Alexa every time you come home, this new feature will let you program automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-alexa-understands-your-home-s-layout-better\">Alexa Understands Your Home\u2019s Layout Better<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With the room awareness update, you can group devices together on the Alexa app. Doing so makes it so much easier to tell your Echo what smart gadgets in what room to turn on\/off. Let\u2019s say you put a bunch of smart lights to a group named \u201ckitchen lights\u201d. By saying \u201cAlexa, turn on the kitchen lights\u201d, the Amazon AI can tap those bulbs all at once.&nbsp;This allows you to assign an Alexa-enabled device to that same group. So when you\u2019re near that Echo and you tell Alexa to turn off the lights, she\u2019ll know you meant the ones in the kitchen group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-alexa-controls-multiple-smart-devices-at-once\">Alexa Controls Multiple Smart Devices at Once<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Alexa can now tap several smart gadgets in one go. Sure, the <em>routines<\/em> feature may be a little similar to <em>scenes<\/em> on the HomeKit smart home platform, but it\u2019s undoubtedly an improvement. In previous iterations, Alexa could only initiate routines with aid from other apps (e.g. Philips Hue app). You can now set it up right in the Alexa app. Imagine being able to turn on your whatever appliance is connected to your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hellotech.com\/blog\/best-smart-plugs\">trusted smart plug<\/a> along with your Philips Hue lights all at once. You can now create your own commands, so you need not be limited to a predefined setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-alexa-follows-a-scheduled-routine\">Alexa Follows a Scheduled Routine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On the Alexa app, you can program the Amazon voice assistant to observe a routine. That way, you don\u2019t have to tell Alexa what to do each time. While you can always say \u201cAlexa, good night\u201d to turn on every IoT devices you need to use before going to bed, automation offers a shortcut. With this new update, Alexa can automatically activate your <em>good night<\/em> command at a preferred time even when you\u2019re not around to say the words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon\u2019s massively popular AI has been getting updates&nbsp;quickly.&nbsp;Alexa has become ubiquitous in smart homes everywhere Alexa\u2019s New Features Built into Amazon\u2019s expanding line of smart devices, we\u2019ve known the AI to be capable of setting a reminder, helping with your shopping, searching the Web, or playing music at your command. More importantly, Alexa can control your smart home devices. In recent months, the retail giant added three new features that let you do much more than control individual IoT (Internet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17597,17600,17586,17584,17587,17585,17579,17580],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessories","category-audio","category-editors-choice","category-gadgets","category-news","category-products-and-reviews","category-smart-home","category-tips-and-tricks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.10 (Yoast SEO v20.10) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Alexa Update Adds Depth to Her Expanding Smart Home Powers - 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