Amazon is making it simpler to map the gadgets in a connected home.
At a press event that took place this morning at the business’s HQ2 headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the company demonstrated a forthcoming feature in the Alexa mobile app called Map View. This feature will enable users to create a digital map of their home and add connected devices to it. Users will be able to check the status of, make changes to, and add new devices all from the Map View interface.
“Currently, millions of users have connected more than 20 different devices to Alexa,” said the company. “That’s incredible momentum, but we know it can be difficult to manage that many devices,” Charlie French, director of smart home at Amazon, said onstage. “We know it can be difficult to manage that many devices.” Even I have trouble finding the gadget I’m looking for when I have to navigate through a lengthy list of options since I can’t remember the name of it. We were aware that we needed to make things simpler.
French emphasised that Map View is opt-in, not opt-out, and that users have control over which rooms are included to their floor plan and can erase their floor plan at any moment. This is so that you do not get concerned about the privacy implications of Amazon scanning your home.
In the latter part of this year, Map View will become accessible on certain mobile devices in the United States.
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