Smart home tech is becoming a more accessible and popular way of upgrading your current household setup. The best thing about the Amazon Echo family of products and Amazon Alexa is the seemingly endless integration with many popular and emerging smart home devices. Here is a smorgasbord of some of the best Alexa-compatible smart home tools that work with your Amazon Echo device.
Alexa, show the front door camera
Ring Video Doorbell 2
Staff Pick
The Ring doorbell works with Echo to provide a screen and show you who is near your doorbell. It has a horizontal view of 180 degrees and a vertical view of 110 degrees.
£89 from Amazon
Alexa, lock the door
August Smart Lock Pro + Connect
This smart lock connects to your existing deadbolt setup. Once installed, just ask Alexa to lock or unlock the door. Plus, set your door to lock and unlock when it detects you coming or going.
£399 from Amazon
You’re Hot and You’re Cold
Nest Learning Thermostat
The Nest Learning Thermostat connects to up to 20 thermostats in your home and lets you control and program them all together, or individually from the app or with Amazon Echo.
£169 from Amazon
Automatic Clean
iRobot Roomba 690
The iRobot Roomba works with Alexa to make cleaning up messes around your home a breeze. It can run 90 minutes before needing to dock and recharge and works on hard floors and carpet.
£700 from Amazon
Light up your life
Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 3 Bulb Starter Kit
Essential product
Ask Alexa to change your Philips Hue lights to any colour you wish, dim your lights, or set a lighting scene via the Philips Hue Alexa skill.
£113 from Amazon
Alexa, Play Music in the Bedroom
Sonos Play:1 Bluetooth Speaker
Incredible sound
Installing the Sonos skill for Alexa will let you play and control the music on your Sonos Play:1 on command. You can install a second Play:1 for stereo quality sound.
£134 from Amazon
Alexa, Turn on My Television!
TCL 43DP628
This 4K smart television is recommended for applications from gaming, to movie watching, and connecting devices through USB and HDMI. You can also control the television from Echo devices.
£270 from Amazon
One system for them all
Logitech Harmony Elite
This universal remote control connects to televisions and other smart devices, like lights, thermostats and locks. Use voice controls when connected to Amazon Echo.
£165 from Amazon
Envelope your home in WiFi
TP-Link Deco Whole Home Mesh WiFi System
Integrating with Alexa lets Deco owners control different aspects of their home network, including opening and closing guest networks and managing QoS modes.
£170 from Amazon
Stream hard, game harder
NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
This router is built with gaming, streaming, and mobile devices in mind. With Dynamic Quality of Service, this router detects what device you’re using and prioritizes bandwidth for it.
£110 from Amazon
Plug & Play
Amazon Smart Plug
Bargain Buy
These first-party smart plugs can pair instantly with your Echo devices and turn any dumb appliance into a smart one with Alexa.
£25 at Amazon
What’s your setup?
Making your home a little smarter can be a lot of fun. Using the Nest Learning Thermostat, Philips Hue Ambiance lights and the iRobot Rumba all make daily living a bit easier while also helping free up valuable time for more important tasks.
If you don’t want to upgrade to Alexa-enabled devices, you can create smart ones by simply plugging them into an Amazon Smart Plug. Just plug your device in and control it with the sound of your voice. Turn a non-smart lamp into a smart one, for example.
Of course, this investment should be kept safe. We recommend starting with the Ring Doorbell and the August smart locks. Both of these devices can be voice-controlled using your Amazon Echo and include apps, also voice-activated, so they can be turned on or off when you’re not at home.
