Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
The smart home automation trend continues growing in popularity as homeowners seek comfort, security, convenience and cost-savings from the latest technologies. The International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts a 16.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in smart home device sales over 2019-2023.
While many companies have unique smart home products on the market, Alexa, a digital voice assistant, by Amazon has emerged as the most recognizable technologies in home automation. The company reported sales of over 100 million Alexa-supported devices in 2018 and the numbers have doubled since then.
If you want to connect multiple devices in your home, you need a reliable smart hub to control everything from the same place. This is where Alexa hubs like Echo, Echo Input, Echo Dot, Echo Dot with Clock, Echo Flex, Echo Show, Echo Plus, Echo Studio, come handy. You don’t need an app for every device like used to happen before. Alexa works with multiple devices making it easy to automate operations in your home.
If you plan to upgrade your home to a smart home, here are some of the best Alexa smart home devices to get you started:
When thinking of a smart home, lighting should top your list of options. The Philips Hue low-energy bulbs have emerged as the standard when it comes to smart lighting as they work with Alexa and are easy to set up and use even with a smartphone app. You can control lighting levels in the room using voice commands and the starter kit by the company can support 50 bulbs.
Plugs are important when you have multiple electronic devices to charge in your home. The Alexa-supported Amazon smart plug is one of the most popular home automation products as it gives you control when charging your devices. You can turn the plug on or off using Alexa or even support routines for turning devices on or off at specific times.
Developers continue pushing boundaries with innovative smart home automation ideas like the AppKettle. You can command Alexa to boil water (temperature 60-100°C,) in this nice looking kettle as long as there's enough to do so. The LED display, glass water window and brushed stainless steel body give this kettle a sci-fi feel. You can also use the 1.7L kettle offline or with an accompanying Android and iOS app.
Fitness trackers and smartwatches are all the rage today and while you might already have one, you can still upgrade to a Fitbit Versa 2. This is an Alexa-enabled device with an upgrade such as OLED display, accurate fitness and health tracking, Sleep tracking/Sleep Score and Fitbit Pay, among others.
Alexa turns on smart home devices, answers questions from the web and gives you your daily health stats. The Fitbit OS 4.1 software update fixed multiple hiccups with the original issue making this an affordable and user-friendly alternative to other products on the market.
How would you like to control your TV, cable box and other streaming equipment from the comfort of your sofa? This is what the Amazon Fire TV Cube allows you to do. It features excellent 4K HDR picture quality, multiple streaming apps, and Alexa remote control in case the voice assistant doesn’t work properly.
Ready to join the smart home revolution? Embracing Alexa in your smart home project is the smartest move you can make. Alexa-supported devices make home automation easier and simpler. Once you buy an Alexa-supported smart home hub, you only need to keep adding more smart devices to upgrade your home for the future.
Photo by Andres Urena on Unsplash
