How Your Echo “Alexa Guard” Can Protect Your Home

488
How Your Echo “Alexa Guard” Can Protect Your Home

Here we can see, “How Your Echo “Alexa Guard” Can Protect Your Home”

What Is Alexa Guard?

Alexa Guard may be a new free service from Amazon for Amazon Echo users. Once you enable Guard, your Echo devices start listening for the sound of glass breaking or smoke and carbon monoxide gas alarms. If an Echo detects any of these noises, it’ll send you an alert.

Amazon accomplishes this feat by altering the wake word behavior for your Echo devices. Usually, your Echo listens for “Alexa” (or one among the optional wake words) to activate. But enabling and activating Guard mode adds additional “wake words” that match the sound of glass breaking and alarms. In other words, your Echo listens for these sounds a bit as it listens for “Alexa.” once you deactivate guard mode, your Echo returns to its standard behavior.

Beyond listening for trouble, Guard can take some basic preventative actions. If you’ve got smart lights tied to the Alexa platform, Guard can turn them on and off randomly to offer the looks that you’re home. You select which smart lights are automated, so your basement light isn’t turning on and off pointlessly.

Once enabled, you arm Guard by telling Alexa, “I’m leaving,” and disarm by saying, “I’m home.” Your Echo will say it’s starting or stopping guarding, and you’ll receive an Alexa notification on your phone, too.

Also See:  Low Resolution Problems in Windows 10

Alexa Guard Isn’t a Monitored Security System, But it’s Helpful

Alexa Guard isn’t a replacement for an alarm or lifeguard and can’t contact emergency services on your behalfs, like the police or local department. Smart Alerts are provided for informational purposes only.

This is something to keep in mind. Alexa Guard won’t contact the police or local department for you. for instance, let’s say you’re at a stage and your phone is about to try not to disturb you. If your house catches fire or a burglar smashes all of your windows, you won’t receive the notifications. It’s going to be too late to notify the police or local department by the time you see the notifications.

If you’re trying to find a security system with monitoring services, you’ll want to think about SimpliSafe or Amazon’s Ring alarm.

But, the likelihood is that you don’t usually keep your phone on don’t disturb once you leave the house. Suppose you don’t have any security system in the least immediately, and you’ve got one or more Amazon Echo devices in your home. In that case, this might be intensified by your current situation.

Smoke alarms are an important part of every home, but they do little good once you leave home—unless you spend over $100 per unit replacing your existing alarms with a sensible version like Nest Protect. With Alexa Guard, you’ve got an opportunity of being notified of a few fires or a home intruder with just an Echo. Should your Echo have a camera (like the Echo Show), you’ll use the drop-by feature to ascertain what’s happening before calling emergency services.

Home security is simply the maximum amount about prevention and reaction. Deterring housebreaking is best than interrupting one. That’s why security systems encourage you to place out a “Protected by” sign: thieves prefer rock bottom hanging fruit. Guard’s smart light integration makes it appear as if you’re home, and that’s helpful.

Some Security Systems Work with Guard

While Alexa Guard isn’t a security system itself, it can work alongside some monitored security systems. Guard can forward your alarm notifications to your security service—along with recorded audio—if you select to enable this feature.

Your Security Service will take the knowledge then act thereon because the company deems it appropriate, whether contacting you, calling emergency services, or both. Amazon says Alexa Guard is compatible with Ring and ADT monitored services, and others could be compatible also.

It’s a simple idea to urge in touch together with your security system to find out if it works with Alexa Guard and what steps are necessary on your part.

It works on two modes:

  • Away Mode, activated once you say, “Alexa, I’m leaving.”
  • Home Mode, activated once you say, “Alexa, I’m home.”

How Alexa Guard detects the specified sounds in Away Mode?

When you have activated the Away Mode, Alexa can detect the sounds of smoke and carbon monoxide gas alarms, and glass breaking is equivalent to detecting the wake word for your voice commands (when you call it “Alexa”).

Once it listens to a sound almost like those we mentioned above, it sends a notification to your smartphone.

To improve its abilities, Alexa uses machine learning to work out the proper action. It does an equivalent for your lighting activity for your home supported their usage. This manner can better control how it activates and off your smart lights when you’re away.

Alexa Guard Plus and its extra services

Other than the quality version of Alexa Guard Mode, Amazon has made it available at the top of the 2020 Alexa Guard Plus. It’s an upgraded version of the quality one and includes tons more features, making it more helpful in guarding your home.

Also See:  Huge Microsoft security vulnerability left thousands of companies’ data at risk

Apart from the capabilities mentioned before, Alexa Guard Plus includes:

  1. Activity sounds.
  2. It makes the sounds of a dog barking when detecting activity outside.
  3. Siren sound when activity is detected inside.
  4. Ability to call a fanatical Emergency Helpline from your Echo

Activity sounds include ones like footsteps, doors opening, and shutting. When Alexa listens to those sounds and sends you a notification, you’ll playback what it’s detected or Drop-In to a selected device and receive live audio of what’s happening.

Of course, for it to be ready to detect movement and activity inside and out of the doors of your home, you’ll get to have movement sensors and outdoor-facing cameras. These devices will make better use of this service, rather than just using your Echo device’s ability to detect noises.

Alexa Guard Plus Costs and Emergency Helpline

Guard Plus, which adds more features that will assist you in protecting your home, maybe a paid service. It comes at $4.99 a month or $49 a year.

It makes available hands-free calls to Amazon’s Emergency Helpline and gets support from a representative who can connect you with the police, an ambulance, or the hearth department.

All you would like to try is tell your Echo device: “Alexa, involve help.”

This is an excellent service since Amazon Alexa cannot call 911 or the other Emergency services.

This means it can assist you not only you’re away but also once you are in reception.

Another extra feature Alexa Guard Plus includes is the ability to use it with third-party Alexa-enabled devices like Ring Alarm, ADT Pulse, ADT Command and Control, Abode, Scout Alarm, Resideo, A3 Smart Home, and Wyze.

How to enable Alexa Guard and customize the notifications

To enable the Alexa Guard and what notifications it sends you about emergencies while Alexa Guard Mode is active, you’ll get to attend the Alexa app on your smartphone.

From here, you’ll enable the service, enable the Alexa Guard Plus, and customize everything associated with it.

Here are the steps you would like to follow:

  1. Open the Alexa app on your smartphone.
  2. Select the “More” menu ☰.
  3. Open “Settings” and scroll down.
  4. Find and tap the “Guard” option.
  5. Now follow the instructions and insert the info. Alexa must enable the service.
    • When you enable the “Guard” option, you’ll find the Alexa Guard Status (Home or Away) and other information associated with the service once you return here.
  6. To modify the settings, tap the settings icon at the highest right ⚙️.

Here you’ll find all the choices you’ll use to customize the service and adapt them to your needs.

Once you’ve got enabled and customized the Alexa Guard Mode, these are the voice commands you’ll use with it:

  1. “Alexa, I’m leaving.” once you leave the house to enable “Away Mode.”
  2. “Alexa, I’m home.” once you come, so it doesn’t consider you an intruder.
  3. “Alexa, try Guard Plus.”

The last command will enable all the features Alexa Guard Plus includes, for free, for a 30-day trial.

Conclusion 

I hope you found this guide useful. If you’ve got any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to use the shape below. 

User Questions:

  1. Does Alexa guard add home mode?

With Guard, Alexa can assist you to keep your home safe. … Once you find out Alexa Guard, say, “I’m leaving,” to modify to Away Mode. The sunshine ring on your Echo devices will animate with a rotating white light to point when Guard is in Away Mode. Say, “I’m home,” to modify Guard to Home mode.

  1. Can Alexa listen to intruders?

By default, all Echo smart speakers include a feature called Alexa Guard, which may provide you with a warning to the sound of broken glass or smoke alarms. Guard Plus also expands on Alexa’s standard emergency alerts and intruder deterrents.

  1. Can you drop by on Alexa without them knowing?

But are you able to drop by on Alexa without them knowing? No, you cannot silently eavesdrop with Alexa’s drop-by feature. When someone drops into an Alexa-enabled device, that device makes a definite ringing noise and continuously flashes a green light for as long as the drop by occurs. Neither is often turned off.

Also See:  How to Save a Google Map Route
  1. Alexa Guard pulled from the UK. £10 gift certificate if you’d happened to possess enabled it.

Alexa Guard pulled from UK. £10 gift certificate if you’d happened to have enabled it. from amazonecho

  1. My Alexa Guard just got awesome features.

My Alexa Guard just got awesome features. from amazonecho