There are quite a few brands of smart bulbs currently on the market. Philips, for example, is undoubtedly the leading brand, and offers a very complete ecosystem, but also at a price that not everyone can afford. On the other hand, there are other brands that offer their smart lighting products at cheaper prices, and among all these companies, it stands out IKEA, which little by little has been cultivating the range TRÅDFRI expanding and improving its catalog. At the time we explained precisely how IKEA light bulbs work with HomeKit (the Apple ecosystem), but it is very possible that you have doubts about its use with one of the most famous voice assistants: Alexa. So today we are going to answer a very simple question: can I use the Swedish brand's lighting products with my Amazon Echo?
How do Ikea smart lighting equipment work?
Ikea's smart lighting ecosystem is made up of several elements. The simplest products are light bulbs, which are available in E14, E27 and GU10 sockets, that is, they adapt to any device or lamp you have at home. Then, depending on the price, they allow you to regulate the intensity, color temperature or even set a custom color.
On the other hand, the Swedish brand also sells reinforced LED strips for use in kitchens, LED spotlights, panels that simulate windows and sockets, sensors and light intensity regulators. All of these products need a bridge to be controlled remotely. This device is called 'TRÅDFRI Connection device' it costs 39 euros and connects with an Ethernet cable to your router. It also needs power, although you can feed it directly with the router's USB port, since it doesn't demand too much power —this editor has been with the system like this for more than a year and hasn't had any problems. On the other hand, you will also need a remote to configure the light bulbs in the Ikea Home Smart app and that the bridge recognizes them. The cheapest remote is about 10 euros (STRYBAR) and then you can stick it to the wall to control a set of lights or whatever you want. Once you have configured all the lights with the app, you can control them from Ikea Home Smart or the remotes you have purchased. Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, it can be connected to Alexa.
How to connect TRÅDFRI devices to Alexa
Once you have your Ikea lighting devices connected to the bridge and visible in the app, all you have to do is the following:
- Go to the cogwheel in the upper right corner of Ikea HomeSmart.
- Tap on 'Integrations'.
- Choose your voice assistant. Currently, only Google Assistant and Alexa are available. We will follow these steps with the Alexa.
- A browser will open where we will have to write the data of login our amazon account in which we have associated Alexa.
- Done the previous step, open the alexa apps. The device will start to detect Ikea equipment, usually with a generic name. No matter you have created rooms in Home Smart, Alexa will detect the bulbs individually.
- Add each device to the corresponding room from the Alexa app.
- Ready. As a final trick, within Home Smart you can move the remote control to the room of your choice. So you can control a small group of devices with the remote, such as the lamps in a living room or kitchen.