Amazon Echo will soon have additional features to transform it into a smart security system. Echo speakers are always listening; with the new upgrade, they’ll be able to start listening for the sound of broken glass, or the piercing alarm from a smoke or carbon monoxide detector. If it hears those sounds while you’re out of the house, it’ll be able to send a notification directly to your phone. If, on the other hand, you have a supported professional monitoring system, Guard will send a notification instead to the service monitoring your home.
Amazon is making it easy to use its new security feature. You’ll only have to tell Alexa that you’re leaving the house for the Guard system to be activated.
Alexa will also be able to randomize the lighting in your home when you’re away (if you have smart lights connected to your Echo device), to make it appear like someone is in the house and moving around. Amazon says it’s supposed to control the lighting in ways that “seem natural” using machine learning.
It seems that Alexa Guard will also integrate with the many smart security products that Amazon now sells through the Ring and Blink brands. However, how far that’ll go wasn’t made clear in Amazon’s brief initial announcement.
At launch, Amazon only said the service will integrate with Ring for security products, and with ADT for professional monitoring.
Anthony has been in the MSP business since before the acronym existed. Managed IT once started as break-fix solutions and some light phone support.
Since then, he has seen the industry flourish into a landscape of platforms, cloud servers, software tools and AI . Tailoring network configurations and software stacks to the specific needs of each business.
In his current role, he focuses on proactive planning, ensuring clients can avoid potential issues altogether. This involves meticulous planning for enhanced business continuity, allowing swift resolution of any unforeseen challenges. What initially began as addressing "fires" through break-fix solutions has evolved into a proactive approach, ensuring that such issues are prevented from arising in the first place.
