Amazon's Wi-Fi Simple Setup will make it easier to connect your smart home
Alexa will share your Wi-Fi credentials with compatible smart devices.
Through Amazon's Wi-Fi Simple Setup, Amazon wants to take away the headache of setting up your smart home . As it stands, you usually need to connect each smart plug , smart lightbulb and smart fan individually. Amazon wants to help with that process, and will share your Wi-Fi credentials with compatible smart home devices.
Smart home companies TP-Link and Eero are jumping on board at launch, so if you have an Amazon Echo connected to your Wi-Fi network, you can plug in a new TP-Link Smart Plug and your Echo will set it up on your Wi-Fi for you.
Amazon announced the change during the company's surprise event in Seattle on Thursday. Wi-Fi Simple Setup is part of a larger plan of frustration-free setup, which includes Zigbee setup. Smaller smart home devices won't actually talk directly to your Wi-Fi router. They use lower-frequency signals like Zigbee to help save power, and it looks like Amazon's new setup assistance will help connect those devices as well.
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This feature honestly sounds pretty great. Amazon's promised to keep the information encrypted, so it'll hopefully lower the barrier to entry to a smarter home by making setup easier without taking away from your home's security.
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