How to Set Up Your 1st Smart Home Automation with Alexa?
Alexa is Amazon’s virtual home assistant, much like Apple’s Siri or Google’s Home Assistant.
The home assistant lives in the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot - smart pieces of tech that are often the key to ultimate home automation. But they can’t do it alone.
Depending on how you want to smarten your home, you’ll need smart bulbs, smart plugs, or home surveillance cameras, from which to connect your Alexa device.
Joining your smart devices with Alexa might seem like an arduous task, but think again; it’s a speedy process that helps to smarten up your home even more.
In this post, we guide you through the simple process of connecting your smart devices with Alexa.
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What Does Alexa Do & Why Should You Connect with Alexa?
Put simply, Alexa takes home automation to the next level. It’s only when your smart home is paired with a virtual home assistant such as Amazon Alexa, that you realize its full potential.
Alexa is particularly well-equipped to make all of your smart devices work together, regardless of whether they’re the same brand. With a single voice command, you can change the entire mood of the house, be it by dimming the lighting, loading up the tv for movie night, or simply switching everything off before bed.
While BAZZ Smart Home devices need no hub to function, they are compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa - allowing you to integrate our smart devices into routines and control them with your voice!
How to Set Up Smart Devices with Alexa?
Connecting your smart devices with Alexa is an easy task. But before you begin, there are a few things you should make sure are in place:
- Check the smart device’s compatibility with Alexa.
- Connect Alexa to the same Wi-Fi network as your smart device.
- Download and install the latest software updates.
Once you have followed these instructions, simply:
- Download the Amazon Alexa app (Google Play or App Store),
- Tap ‘Devices’ on the bottom right of the screen.
- Press the + button.
Alexa will then scan your home network to locate potential smart devices that you can connect.
How to Set Up Alexa Groups?
Now that you’ve set up your individual devices, you might wonder how you can group them together.
Instead of telling Alexa to turn off each of your living room lights one by one, you can set up an Alexa Group. This makes it easier to create routines and control multiple devices with a single voice command.
- Open the Alexa app.
- Tap ‘Devices’.
- Press the + button.
- Tap ‘Add Group’.
- Choose Smart Home Group and enter a suitable name such as "living room lights" or "upstairs lights".
- Select the devices you want to include in the group.
What Common Commands Can I Use?
When you connect your Amazon Alexa to your smart devices, you’re able to control everything from your living room lighting to your coffee machine using voice commands.
There are many different voice commands you can use - some for fun and some for function. Here are some of the handy voice commands you could use to control BAZZ Smart Home Products.
“Turn off all lights”
“Dim the living room lighting”
“Turn the bedroom lights green”
“Turn on the TV”
“Make the office lights warmer”
“Siren the alarm”
“Turn off the PlayStation”
What Happens If Alexa Can't Detect Your Device?
If you have followed the steps to connect your Alexa and it still isn’t detecting your smart device, some common troubleshooting steps can help.
- Ensure your smart device is Alexa-compatible.
- Check both devices are on and ready to be discovered.
- Reinstall the Alexa app.
- See if Alexa and the smart device are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
- Hardware reset Alexa.
Connect Your BAZZ to Alexa
At BAZZ, we’re proud that all of our smart home lighting and smart plugs are Amazon Alexa compatible. Whether you prefer Amazon Alexa or Google Home Assistant, BAZZ makes connecting your virtual home assistant easy, giving you complete home automation.
Browse our collection of smart lighting, and smarten up your home today.
