Amazon’s Alexa can now act on its own hunches to turn off lights and more

[Karlston]

Amazon’s Alexa can now act on its own hunches to turn off lights and more

New updates bring proactive hunches and Guard Plus to the smart assistant

 

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Amazon is enabling a new feature today that allows Alexa to proactively complete tasks around the house, such as turning off lights, based on your habits and frequent requests.

 

Alexa has been able to sense these habits and ask about them since 2018 — the company calls them “hunches” — but before this update, Alexa would ask permission before acting on something like lowering the thermostat before you went to bed. If the new proactive hunches are enabled, though, Alexa will skip asking for permission for a task and just do it.

 

 

While proactive hunches seem like they could make Alexa a lot more useful, having granular controls over what Alexa can automatically act on will be important. An Amazon support article seems to suggest you can select what types of hunches Alexa can complete on its own, but we’ve reached out to Amazon for more information on how much you can customize proactive hunches.

 

Along with new Alexa abilities, Amazon is also rolling out its Guard Plus security subscription service. The service can alert you if Alexa picks up on certain types of sounds in your home and offers access to human agents who can call emergency services on your behalf, similar to ADT. You’ll be able to sign up for Guard Plus in the Alexa app, and it will cost $4.99 per month.

 

Amazon is also rolling out an energy dashboard to the Alexa app that can monitor and estimate how much power compatible devices connected to Alexa use if their manufacturers support it. This can include anything from TVs to water heaters, and Amazon has a whole list of compatible products on its site about the new dashboard.

The new energy dashboard in the Alexa app.

Image: Amazon

Amazon says all three features should start rolling out in the US today.

 

 

Amazon’s Alexa can now act on its own hunches to turn off lights and more