Did you know that you can make your device with the virtual assistant Alexa react and do whatever you want when it hears a certain sound? Well yes, it is something that can be achieved and we will explain how.
When the fourth generation Echo and Echo Dot models arrived back in 2020, Amazon declared that they were going to add different types of sound that the devices could detect to make the warning system work better.
Some were already incorporated, but there are others that have just been added and that we can configure through the Alexa routines.
The former were sounds like a person snoring, a baby crying, or someone coughing. With this detection, the speaker or the Alexa system could and can be made to do certain actions when noticing these types of sound actions.
We should not confuse what we are talking about with noise detection within Alexa Guard, which is only active when the Guard system status is set to Away. With Guard, you receive a notification and a 10-second audio clip saved in the app, so you can hear the noise that was detected.
The detection of the sounds that we are talking about are the same as the ruins that we create to turn on the lights or raise the people, but depending on a specific type of sound.
Where is it and how is it configured?
The truth is that, to get to the sounds, both those that were configured and the new ones, we must move to the Alexa routines.
For this, the simplest thing is that we have in our mobile terminal the Alexa app that can be downloaded from Google play store wave apple app store.
Once we have it installed on our smartphone, we must follow these steps:
- We open the Alexa app.
- Once inside the application, click on Plus, icon that is in the right part at the bottom.
- Next, it is time to click on Routines.
- Then we will see three windows as they are My Routines, Featured or Activity.
- In My routines It is where we will see those that we have generated.
- If we go to Outstanding are those that are considered essential or that from Alexa they place by dates, such as Activa Christmas, a routine to listen to Christmas carols or turn on Christmas lights among other things.
- Activity This is where the routines that have been used in the last 30 days are.
- To continue with what we are dealing with, we must click on the symbol + which is at the top right of the screen.
- It will take us to a new window called New Routine, where we must click on When.
- Just after at the bottom of the options that come out we have Sound detection, place where you have to enter.
At the moment that we are inside Sound Detection we realize that we have several possibilities, some that already existed and others that are new.
This is the site to configure the sounds, part of Alexa where new types of sounds will be incorporated as reported by Amazon.
We currently have the following:
- Cough: detects cough for a specified time.
- Crying baby: detects crying for a specified time.
- Appliance beeps: detects any appliance that is beeping.
- Barking dog: it is able to detect the barking of the dog.
- Snoring: it can detect snoring in a room, differentiating one from the other.
- Water sounds: is able to hear the sound of water.
Once we have decided which of them we want to activate, it is as simple as clicking on the one we want and then selecting the Alexa device to which we want to send said routine. We will see how a blue click appears next to the name of the device, to later click on Following.
At that time we can put the name that we want and in Add Action, we will tell you what we want you to do when it detects, for example, snoring or the sound of water.
Now all you have to do is click on Keep for this routine to take effect. From this moment on, any of the routines that we have chosen from those that appear in this section will be active and working.
As you have been able to read now, the Alexa routines take a step further and can detect extremely natural circumstances of our day to day help us with it.
This is the path that attendees are going to take, that is, each time they are going to learn to help us with much more everyday things that have less to do with a one hundred percent smart home.