Jordan O'BrienAmazon’s Echo Bluetooth speaker can already control a wealth of home automation devices, from Samsung’s SmartThings to Philips’ Hue, but now it has added yet another – Insteon.
Like other home automation devices interfacing with Echo, users can use voice recognition to control the various products located around their home.
For example, turning on a light is as simple as saying “Alexa, set living room lamp to 50%.”
Users aren’t forced to turn on each light one by one either.
If there are five connected bulbs in the living room, those five lights can be grouped and controlled all with one command.
For example, a user could say “Alexa, switch off all the living room lights.”
The groupings are platform agnostic as well – allowing users to control Insteon, Hue and any other automation platform supported by Echo, all in one group.
Users needn’t even be in the same room as the speaker, as the optional voice remote for Amazon Echo can also take commands.
In order to get Alexa to function as a digital assistant for the smart home, installers will need to integrate compatible devices.
Home automation technologies which currently support Echo functionality are; Belkin WeMo, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, Insteon and Wink.
To control Insteon devices, installers will also need to integrate the latest Insteon Hub; which can also work with Logitech’s Harmony, as well as Nest.