Get an Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas? Discover the 3 features that revolutionized my smart home setup
Whether you were on the nice list or just decided to treat yourself, I’m gifting you with three Alexa features you’ll be glad you tried.
(Image credit: Future)
If you found an Amazon Echo Dot under the tree this Christmas or you’ve treated yourself to one with a gift card, I’m delighted to say that you now own one of the most versatile smart speakers on the market.
Whether you have one smart device or twenty, an Amazon Echo Dot makes controlling them almost effortless, thanks to voice commands and its compatibility with the best smart home devices.
(Image credit: Future)
I use my Echo Dot every day to control my TV, air purifiers, lights, and more, and the impressive variety of routines and automations in the Alexa app has my home running like clockwork. What’s more, you can even pair it with accessories to smarten up standard gadgets, but I’ll share more on that later.
To make sure you’re getting the most out of your new Echo Dot, I’m gifting you a selection of the best smart home features I use in my home, which I highly recommend you try out for yourself.
Reliable Routines
The Routines feature is quite possibly the thing I love most about my Echo Dot, and I recommend experimenting with some of your own creations to see just how game-changing they can be.
As someone who thrives on structure and routine, and happens to own a lot of smart devices, I couldn’t help but get a little excited about the number of automations available to me.
Custom routines are satisfyingly simple to create. They can be set to run at scheduled times or in response to a specified event, such as your Echo Dot detecting the sound of an appliance beeping or an alarm being dismissed.
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The latter is particularly useful for stopping your robot hoover starting its scheduled cleaning spree on your day off and ruining your lie-in.
A custom voice command can be assigned to each of your routines, too, so you can set the automations running without waiting for the trigger or picking up your phone to adjust your smart device settings manually.
(Image credit: Amazon / Future)
If setting up routines from scratch doesn’t sound appealing, you can still enjoy some automation magic by selecting one of the many editable presets available on the Alexa app.
