84 AUGUST 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 378
O
ne of the main reasons to use an
Echo is to controlyour smart home
devices, turning up the heating or
turning offthe lights without your having to
leavethe comfort of your seat or bed.
Here’s what youneed to know.
First, each smart home devicerequires
youtoinstall aSkill in the same waythat
you’dinstall the Skills that we listed on the
previous page. Typically,you’reprompted
to log into an account, such as Philips Hue,
and then Alexa will discoverwhich devices
youhaveinyour home.
Once discovered, what youcan do varies
from devicetodevice, so check out the Skills
page to see what commands youcan use.
That said, thereare some basics. For
example with lights, youcan say,‘Alexa,turn
on <name>’ or ‘Alexa,set <name> to 50%’.
Similarly,with thermostats, youcan say,
‘Alexa,set <name> to 20 degrees’.
APPCONTROL
As well as controlling devices using your
voice, youcan controlthem using the Alexa
app. Open it up and tapthe Devices button
(bottom right). Here,you’ll see alist of device
categories, including Echo &Alexa,Lights,
Plugs, Thermostats, Locks, Scenes and All
Devices. Just select the category youwant,
such as Lights, and youcan then select a
device, such as asmart lightbulb.
Alexa then gives youcontrols so youcan
controlyour devicedirectly,setting alight’s
brightness or changing its colour,for instance.
The Devicelist is also whereyou manage
your devices from. Once you’veselected a
device, thereare twowaysofediting it. If the
devicedoesn’t haveany app controls, then
selecting it brings youtothe edit screen. If
the devicedoes haveapp controls, such as
with asmart lightbulb, select the Settings
cogtogotothe edit screen.
On this screen, youcan tapEdit Name to
giveyour deviceaneasier-to-remember (or
say)name. Note that this only changes the
name forAlexa,not in the parentapp. So if
youchange aHue bulb’s name in Alexa,the
old name still appears in the Hueapp.
Youcan also use the Enabled toggle
switch to turn offadevicetemporarily,and
use the Binicontoremove adevicefrom
your Echo. If youwanttoremove adevice
permanently,you should also go to the
device’s Skill and disable it there. If youdon’t,
the next time Alexa runs adiscovery routine
it will bring back your deletedproducts.
GROUPTHERAPY
So far, so good, but Alexa really comes into
its ownwhen youstart to use groups to
placeyour smart devices together.Think of
Groups as rooms, whereyou placeall
devices into their ownroom. Groups give
youtwo main advantages.
First, youcan controlall devices in a
group together.For example, ‘Alexa,turn on
kitchen lights’ will turn on all smart bulbs in
that room. More importantly,you canadd
an Echo devicetoagroup, telling it where
it’slocated. This means that younolonger
need to mention devices by name when you
want to controlthem.
If youwereinyour kitchen, youcould just
say to your kitchen Echo, ‘Alexa,turn on light’.
Alexa then knows that it’sinthe kitchen, so
youwanttoturn on the lights in the same
MAKEALEXA
LESSANNOYING
Tired of Alexa spouting back along
sentencewhen you ask something
simple? Go to the Alexa app, Settings,
Alexa Account, Alexa VoiceResponses
and turn on Brief Mode. This will get
Alexa to give shorter replies or reply
with abeep if you ask something simple,
such as turning on alight.
CONTROL YOUR
SMARTHOME
Alexa makes it easy to control smartdevices in your home such as lights and
heating using your voice. We showyou howtoset everything up
