A few years ago, it might not have been common to find devices like smart speakers, light bulbs controlled by your phone, or robot vacuums that start cleaning simply by asking them to. However, now, if you're even remotely tech-savvy, you're sure to encounter them daily. One of the best home management systems is the one Amazon offers through its smart assistant. The problem arises when you let home automation take over and end up with 5, 10, or even 15 different accessories in the Amazon app. Today, we'll show you how to solve this by organizing all your smart home devices with Alexa.
How to connect new devices to Alexa?
The first thing you should be clear about is how we can add new equipment to the Alexa digital home system. And the truth is that, depending on the product we are talking about, it will be more or less simple (although it normally does not take more than 5 minutes in any case).
If you have already done this process on other occasions, you can go to the next section. But if you are just starting out in the world of home automation, you will only have to:
- Open the app Alexa on your phone (Android or iOS).
- In the menu on the bottom bar, select the option Devices.
- Within this new menu you have two options: if you have already connected the light bulb, speaker or whatever smart device, it will appear in a message (top pop-up) indicating that a new computer has been detected; On the other hand, if you don't see this message, just click on the "+" icon in the upper right corner.
- In the event that you click on said icon, you will see a new menu with different options. Click on “Add device”. Then we will see what the rest of the options are useful for.
- Again, we will be faced with a large number of alternatives to choose from. On the one hand, if we want to add an Amazon smart device, we will normally have to select Amazon Echo. If this is not your case, it will depend on the device in question: you can click on the "category" of the type of device such as a switch, a camera, a light, etc., or write the name of the brand in the search bar superior.
At this point, we can not explain the steps to follow because, once again, it will depend on the accessory and brand in question. What we can tell you is that, by following the steps that you will see on the screen of your phone from now on, normally in a matter of 2-3 minutes that device will appear in the "linked with Alexa" catalog of your account.
Amazon Echo with or without Zigbee bridge
So far, this is the natural process for adding new smart devices to Alexa. But, if you didn't know, there are some accessories (which are mainly smart bulbs) that may need an intermediary between Alexa and your WiFi connection. This is what is known as the bridges or connection bridges that will usually use Zigbee technology.
Zigbee, in case you're unfamiliar with it, is a communication protocol used by various smart devices that allows us to connect these gadgets and control them from our phones or with voice commands. Zigbee bridges act as intermediaries between the smart accessory we want to connect and the router itself. These bridges can be purchased separately from the brand of the product we want to connect, as is the case with Philips smart bulbs. Or, for a more practical solution, we can get an Amazon smart speaker that includes a built-in "universal" Zigbee bridge.
Some of the models that include this type of technology within Amazon's smart speaker catalog are:
- Amazon Echo (4th Generation).
- Amazon EchoStudio.
- Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Generation).
- Amazon Echo Plus: this particular model has already been discontinued, but if you already had one, it can help you.
Perhaps, of these, the one that is most common for us to buy for our home is the new Amazon Echo "just plain". If you are interested in learning more about it and all its benefits, you can take a look at our analysis that we carried out on YouTube:
And, if you are recently starting out in home automation and the connected home, you may have doubts about what these devices can bring you. In another of the videos that we publish on our channel we tell you what it is like to live with Amazon's smart speaker ecosystem, we think you might find it interesting:
How to order devices in Alexa?
And well, having said all of the above, let's get to the really interesting part of this article: organizing our digital home with Alexa. Really, it is quite simple and we will mainly depend on the “Groups”.
Groups for the digital home
To put it simply, the groups within the Alexa app are just like the rooms in your house . The best way to organize your smart home devices is to create a group for each room where you have one of these devices. This way, there won't be any confusion.
Now, how do you create a group within Alexa? Well, it's as simple as:
- Open the Alexa application again and go to the "Devices" section where we were before.
- Now click, once again, on the "+" in the upper right corner.
- In the next step, within the drop-down menu, we will have to press the option of "Add group".
- Again, we will arrive at another screen in which it gives us the alternatives of "Create a new room or group", or, "Combine existing groups". In this case, we are going to create a new one.
- Choose the name you want to give this group from the presets, or customize it to your liking in the last option. To finish, click on “Finish”.
- On this screen select the smart device you want to add to this group. Click "Next" again to continue.
- Now, if there is a smart speaker in the list of connected devices, on this screen you will have the possibility to add it. Click “Next” again to finish.
If you follow this step by step you will have created a new group within your account. From now on, you will be able to see it on the main screen of the Alexa "Devices" section. And, of course, you can interact with this group using voice commands, such as telling the assistant "Alexa, turn off all the lights in the room."
Move devices within Alexa
Another frequently asked question, especially if you have a lot of tech gadgets connected to your account, is how to move a device from one group to another . It's much simpler than it seems:
- Within the Alexa app, in the "Devices" section, scroll down to the new group where you want to locate the accessory and enter it.
- Once here, click on "Edit" in the upper right corner.
- In this new window you will see all the devices linked to your account. From this you can modify all the products that you want to appear in this group.
Remove Alexa Devices
Finally, if you want to delete a device that is no longer in your digital home for some reason, the process is also straightforward:
- Locate the device in question either through a group or from the app's own list.
- When you enter it, in addition to being able to control any of its aspects (turn it off, turn it on, lower the intensity, etc.), you will see a gear in the upper right corner. Access her.
- Here are different features of this equipment. And, again, in the same corner as before, we will see a trash can. If you want to delete this accessory, click on it and confirm your decision in the pop-up.
It's that easy to manage the basics of your smart home devices with Alexa. If you have any questions, you can leave them for a comment and we will try to resolve them as soon as possible.
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