feAmazon’s Echo Might Be Getting More Useful With SmartThings Integration

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A demo of the new SmartThings/Echo partnership showed users commanding the speaker to turn on and dim lights.

If telling your web-connected home entertainment speaker to reorder laundry detergent wasn’t enough (when is it?), Amazon is reportedly giving Echo the ability to essentially run your home through a new partnership with SmartThings.

Citing a SmartThings blog that was taken down, TechCrunch reports that the two companies are preparing to launch an update that would roll SmartThings capabilities into the Echo speaker (which has also been called “Siri in a box”).

Echo, which was first unveiled in November 2014, functions much like other voice-activated devices: always on and always connected to the internet.

In all, Echo has previously allowed users to ask the system’s personal assistant “Alexa” to update to-do lists, set alarms and timers, check the weather, get sports and news, get answers to questions from Wikipedia, stream music, or just talk without having to worry about a sarcastic reply (that is, until machines inevitably become self-aware and sassy).

Now, through the new partnership, Echo would have the ability to operate any SmartThings-compatible device – or devices plugged into a SmartThings Power Outlet – in a consumer’s home.

A demo video viewed by TechCrunch – but since taken down – showed users simply asking Alexa to do something, like dimming the lights or turning on a Sonos player.

It’s unclear when the new Echo capabilities will roll out. We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment on the partnership and will update this post when we hear back from the company.

TechCrunch points out that Amazon had initially been working with Wink to power different devices in the home, but the blog post points to a new plan.

SmartThings Support Is Coming To Amazon Echo [TechCrunch]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist