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All Echo owners can now use Alexa Guard to monitor their homes

This is actually really nice.

Amazon echo device with alexa sitting on books
Image: Unsplash

Your Alexa-equipped Amazon Echo can do plenty of things and answer plenty of questions, but now, it’s getting a new feature that’s arguably one of its most helpful.

Rolling out now, all Amazon Echo devices are getting an update called Alexa Guard that acts as a security monitoring service for your home. The free service isn’t going to be as powerful as something like a dedicated security service, it is definitely a helpful addition to Alexa’s suite of tools, and hey, free is free, ya dig?

So, what do you get with Alexa Guard?

With Alexa Guard, you’re going to get a couple of different things, but probably the biggest and most helpful of those are the Smart Alerts Alexa can offer. When you say, “Alexa, I’m leaving,” the Echo device will start listening for particular sounds and send you alerts when those sounds are heard.

This includes things like smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms, and even the sound of breaking glass. Alexa will send the alert to your phone and include an audio clip so you can decide if it’s worth escalating the issue. It can also connect with companies like Ring and ADT to send that information to that dedicated service.

Alexa guard screenshots amazon

Image: KnowTechie

One other small feature that Amazon’s near feature will include is the ability to connect to your smart lights and plugs throughout your home. It will then take what it knows about your activities and use machine learning to turn lights and plugs off and on to make it look like you’re home. Kevin McCallister could have used this feature, no doubt.

If you’d like to try out the new feature for yourself, simply head to Settings > Guard and follow the prompts.

What do you think? Will you use the new feature? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Former KnowTechie editor.

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