

You'll find your devices, groups, and scenes listed in the smart home section of the Alexa app. Just go to the app's smart home section and select "Smart Home Skills." From there, you can search for the skill you want to enable - some, such as Lutron and Nest, might need you to supply your login credentials in order to authorize Alexa to take control. In other cases, you might need to pull up the Alexa app and enable a special skill before telling her to scan. In a lot of cases, you'll just need to say, "Alexa, discover new devices." After about 10 seconds of scanning, she'll add whatever gadgets she finds into the Alexa app, and you'll be ready to start telling her to control them. Once your devices are up and running, you'll need to introduce them to Alexa to let her start controlling them. "Alexa, turn on the table lamp" is a heck of a lot easier than "Alexa, turn on Ry's table lamp WeMo Mini." 4. To pick a good one, keep things clear, short, and as plain-spoken as possible. This is an important step because that name is what Alexa will use to identify the device when you give a command. Part of that setup process typically involves giving your device a name. Then again, if you watch a lot of movies and like to dim the lights before hitting play, then Alexa might be better off in your TV room. Add smart home control to the picture, and you could tell Alexa to turn the lights off as you settle in for a good night's sleep, or ask her to turn the thermostat down if the room gets too hot. The bedroom makes a lot of sense, especially if you're thinking of using Alexa's alarm feature to wake you up in the morning. Whether that means you put it in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, or living room is up to you, and the choice really depends on how you're planning on using it. You can use your Echo anywhere you like, so long as it's in range of your home's Wi-Fi signal and a power outlet. One other thing you'll want to think about as you bring Alexa into your home is where you're going to put her. The Amazon app pitches it as a voice-shopping feature, but she'll also control your smart home devices if you have any linked with the Alexa app. Give it a tap and you can talk to Alexa, no speaker necessary. Download the Amazon app and log in with an Amazon account, and you'll find a little microphone icon in the upper right corner of the home screen.

That said, you don't actually need to spend a single cent if all you want is to take Alexa for a test drive.
