Amazon announced a slew of new devices this week, helping Alexa reach every corner of your smart home. But how do you keep track of all those smart speakers, smart displays, and dongles? Amazon's new Maps view visualizes all your Amazon devices on a virtual floor plan of your home.
The feature is briefly demonstrated in the video below: Essentially, you create a floor plan for your home and assign an Amazon device to each room. Then you access the map view, select the device you want to interact with, and issue the command you want.
In the video, a woman is seen opening a map view and tapping on her front door to access her Ring doorbell. Another example shows her selecting a room and turning off all the lights. It works like any other smart home app, but instead of the usual list, you're presented with a nifty floor plan view.
For the privacy-conscious (or those who don't want their housemates messing around with their smart lights), Amazon Map View lets you add or remove rooms and devices at will, so you can exclude some smart home gadgets. It's also apparently easy to remove a floor plan entirely and stop using it. You can't share your floor plans with others; each person needs to create their own in their Amazon account.
(Credit: Amazon)
Maps View will be coming to the Alexa iOS and iPadOS app for LiDAR-enabled Apple devices later this year: iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, 13 Pro and Pro Max, 14 Pro and Pro Max, 15 Pro and Pro Max, and 4th, 5th, and 6th generation iPad Pro (2020 and later) devices.
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The feature is compatible with most smart home gadgets that already support Amazon Alexa, including lights, plugs, cameras, and thermostats, but you only need one compatible device to start creating your floor plan.
To be notified when Map View launches, sign up on Amazon's website.
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