The Amazon Alexa app isn’t only for configuring Echo audio system and managing service integrations. It’s additionally a wise house controller akin to Apple’s House app. Amazon is placing that entrance and heart with the redesigned Alexa app launching at present. There’s additionally a brand new good house mapping characteristic that’s unique to iOS units.
The redesign begins with a brand new Shortcuts bar on the House web page, Amazon says.
A brand new Shortcuts bar on the House web page organizes units by class, and exhibits widespread Alexa options like buying lists, alarms, and Routines. You possibly can customise what you see within the rotating carousel on the high of the House web page. Plus, now you can see the state of your related units—like what number of lights are on or the temperature in your front room—instantly from Shortcuts. These machine state updates can be found when you’ve got 20 or fewer units, and can increase to prospects with further units within the coming months.
Amazon has additionally up to date exercise playing cards for timers and different time-sensitive info with a brand new stacked design, added Ring Defend digital camera snapshots to Favorites, and made Alexa chat accessible from a single location within the app.
For iPhone customers, Amazon is previewing a brand new room mapping characteristic. It sounds prefer it makes use of the LiDAR scanner on iPhones and iPads with that {hardware}:
With Map View, you need to use a appropriate iOS machine to scan and create a digital model of your house’s flooring plan after which pin your related units to it. This allows you to visualize your house at-a-glance, and rapidly entry and management good house units, with no need to scroll by way of any machine lists, keep in mind machine names, or open a number of apps. The characteristic is out there as a preview to pick out prospects within the U.S.
Search for the replace to Alexa on iOS within the App Retailer at present.
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