Your Eero Wi-Fi system just got smarter -- a lot smarter
A major update adds Alexa compatibility and TrueMesh to the Eero Wi-Fi system and, among other things, promises to improve its network performance by 40 percent.
If you have an Eero Wi-Fi system, here's some great news.
Eero announced today a major upgrade that brings in TrueMesh and Alexa compatibility to each of the system's three Wi-Fi units. Eero also updated its mobile app to reflect the additional features, and it will now give users a better view of what's going on in their network.
The Alexa skill is clearly a move to compete with the Almond 3 that became available yesterday. According to Eero, the new update lets you use an Alexa-based device, such as the Amazon Echo , to control its Wi-Fi system including:
- Find a misplaced device in the home: If you often don't where you phone is, you'll love this feature. You can ask Alexa which Eero unit a device (a laptop or a phone) is connected to, hence can narrow down the search area.
- Pause the internet: You can tell the Eero to pause the access to the internet -- a very handy feature if you want to quickly have everyone's attention -- for certain group of devices (via family profiles), and then unpause it using the mobile app.
- Turn off the LED: You can ask Alexa to turn on or of the LED on the Eero. You can already do this via the mobile app, but that's only half as cool as using your voice.
According to Nick Weaver, co-founder and CEO of Eero, the company has redesigned Eero's mesh software based information collected over the last nine months. Eero calls this new mesh system TrueMesh. Key benefits of TrueMesh include:
- Local Area Network (LAN) speed improvement: After the update, the LAN speed between Eero units can double, resulting in up to a 40 percent overall speed improvement for the entire network.
- Intelligent Wi-Fi that adapts to the home: TrueMesh helps each Eero unit pick the most reliable Wi-Fi signal for each client, depending on the environment.
- Add as many Eeros as needed: TrueMesh makes it possible to add as many Eero units as you want to an office. Previously, this was limited to 10 units.
The update is available now and is being pushed to Eero devices automatically. Chances are your system has already been updated. If your network has suddenly improved, you heard it here first. But if you want to know my real assessment on the improvements, check back in a week or so.