Amazon Alexa: The best skill for keeping your home safe is also free

Amazon Alexa: The best skill for keeping your home safe is also complimentary

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The idea of having cameras in my firm has ever creeped me out. And then what if in that location was a way to hope peace of mind, without needing one of the best abode security cameras?

A few years ago Amazon introduced Alexa Baby-sit, one of the best Alexa skills I've grown to rely on in my current lifestyle. As someone who'south away often and has an Repeat speaker or six, the ability to plow my photographic camera-less devices into danger detectors is a game-changer.

Best smart abode devices
How to get started with a DIY smart home
All the funny Amazon Alexa tricks to try now

Alexa Baby-sit turns virtually of the best Alexa speakers into security devices, listening for signs of problem such as glass breaking or your smoke alarm going off. Your Alexa app will notify yous when it hears anything suspicious, letting you accept activeness however you see fit. It even gives you the option to drop-in on your speaker, or check out the scene if yous take a smart display like the Amazon Repeat Bear witness 8 (2d Gen) or Amazon Echo Show 10 (tertiary Gen).

Let me go this out of the way — I haven't needed Alexa Baby-sit's services in the concluding yr-or-so I've been using the characteristic. I also don't pay for Alexa Guard Plus, a subscription tier that volition contact authorities for you when sure sounds are heard. Alexa Guard Plus can play fake barking dog and habitation activeness sounds to make it seem similar y'all're inside, likewise. At $50 per yr, it'south the cheapest professional monitoring service around.

Merely with an Amazon Echo Dot with Clock and Amazon Echo (fourth Gen) on standby for concerning sounds, I feel a lot ameliorate leaving my firm. This is especially pertinent, now that I'm doing more things away now thanks to summer activities like paddleboarding with my Apple tree Watch, or meeting up with friends I haven't seen in a while.

Alexa Guard isn't a replacement for a total habitation security organisation, mainly considering while information technology can telephone call my contacts, it tin't phone call 911 for me. But if you take a 3rd-party system in place, such as one from Ring or ADT, Alexa can forrad alerts to them. Plus, information technology can automatically arm or disarm your system when you toggle Guard Mode on and off. Yes, even with the free version of the skill.

Alexa Guard — how it works

In our guide on how to use Alexa, we've detailed how to gear up and enable Alexa Guard. Hither'southward the short version:

Open up your Alexa app on your smartphone and click on the devices tab on the bottom toolbar. Beneath your device icons you'll see a button called Guard. Click on it for a walkthrough and to explore settings.

When you get a new Amazon speaker these days, the option to enable Alexa Guard is oftentimes included in the set up-up procedure. So keep an middle out next time you become an Amazon Echo Dot (quaternary Gen).

More: Buying a video doorbell? Here's viii things you need to know
Hither are 12 essential DIY tips to prevent break-ins

Kate Kozuch is a senior writer at Tom'south Guide covering wearables, TVs and everything smart-dwelling house related. When she's not in cyborg mode, you can observe her on an practise bike or channeling her inner celebrity chef. She and her robot army volition rule the world one day, only until then, reach her at kate.kozuch@futurenet.com.