It would appear that Amazon has plans to team up with SmartThings to power various home automation features with the Amazon Echo, the voice-powered personal assistant device. That includes light bulbs from various manufacturers, like Philips hue, Osram, and Cree, along with remote power outlets, and more.
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Based on a demo video (which was set to private, but we guessed the password: “Alexa”), users who have both an Echo and any SmartThings products will be able to ask Alexa to turn on various devices by name, and even dim the lights.
There’s no word when the integration will officially launch, but we’re expecting it to be soon. In the past few months, the Echo has added the ability to read synced Kindle audiobooks aloud, reorder items from Amazon, and relay information on scores and schedules from Major League Baseball and MLS.
A blog post announcing the news popped up this week on the SmartThings website.
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Lights, switches, and the outlet were all that were mentioned in the blog post as far as what the Echo can control, but that’s by no means the extent of the products SmartThings is compatible with: speakers, door locks, and thermostats are all on the list. Amazon Echo is a voice controlled Bluetooth speaker, which is designed to be a personal assistant by doing works like helping you to answer some questions, updating you with latest news, playing music and some other stuff.
