With many of us now used to having smart assistant-powered devices in our homes, there’s never been a better time to see what accessories and extra products you can buy to augment your voice-controlled nirvana.
So, let’s check out the most useful stuff out there. And check out our guide to the best Alexa Easter Eggs, too.
Philips has an impressive portfolio of smart, connected lighting solutions to kit your house out with. In fact, it’s arguably the most complete lighting system available. This starter kit will get you going.
Being Hue there are, of course, other lots of bulb types to choose from. They offer spotlights, separate mood lamps, even designer lamps with built-in Hue support and LED light strips. You even get the option of connected dimmer switches and motion sensors. All of which can be controlled by Alexa.
“Alexa, tell Neato to start cleaning.” There’s nothing more satisfying in life than being able to have clean, dust and debris-free floors without having to lift a finger. Neato’s Botvac Connected series offers this convenience and many others.
There’s a whole host of smart connected thermostats on the market and, undoubtedly one of the better ones with Alexa compatibility is the Nest Learning Thermostat. It has a big, colourful display, and is very easy to control thanks to a rotating frame and intuitive smartphone app.
The Netatmo Weather Station gives you accurate weather and air quality measurements in real-time. It can measure temperature, CO2 concentration, air pressure, humidity, noise pollution and more, inside and outside your home. All you need is a smartphone.
With Alexa support, you can ask your Echo for the current outdoor temperature by saying “Alexa, ask Netatmo to get the temperature from the Outdoor module”.
Hive was one of the earliest smart thermostats available in the UK, and with the latest version (the Hive Active Heating 2.0), you get more control than ever. You can use it to control your hot water and your heating and you can link it to Alexa to give you voice control over both.
For all those non-smart products you have lying around, there’s a simply solution: a Wi-Fi Plug. Simply plug your regular lamp, kettle, coffee machine or whatever in to one of these, and have it switch on as soon as you give the command to Alexa. As long as it’s a simple on/off device, you’ll just need to tell your Echo to switch on that specific plug.
The Govee Immersion backlighting system will let you add RGBIC LED lights to the rear of your TV, with a wide-angle camera to detect what’s on the screen. It’s effectively a way to bring that Ambilight experience to your TV.
It’s also compatible with Alexa, so you can add it to a room group, change the colour with voice or control it via the smartphone app.
Lavazza is an established name in coffee, but adding Alexa skills to this machine means that - as long as you’ve prepared the machine, you can ask Alexa to make you a coffee. It will also deliver all of Alexa’s other skills too, like telling you the weather.
