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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.

Andrew Gebhart Former senior producer
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Tyler Lizenby/CNET

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.

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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