Как превратить разрозненные колонки Amazon Echo в единую умную систему дома

A few years ago, I was too naive to believe that the tech hype trap was real. That led to a lot of wasteful spending, as I bought plenty of unnecessary tech items that are now collecting dust. For a long time, I counted my Amazon Echo speakers as one of those product categories I shouldn't have spent my money on. However, I later changed my opinion. My biggest motivation for going back to using Echo speakers came when I discovered I could unify them to build a useful system in my home. If you have multiple Echo speakers, you can do it the same way by following a few simple steps. Here are the simple Amazon Echo multi-device tweaks I used to turn my scattered smart speakers into a unified home system. The first thing I did was combine my Echo speakers Play music on multiple Alexa devices If you have multiple Echo speakers, you can place each one in different rooms and play the same music everywhere. This is one of the features I use at least once a week when I clean my house. I don't want the music to fade away when I move from one room to another while cleaning. This is my favorite use case and the main reason I set up a multi-room audio system by combining my Echo speakers. Here are the steps I followed to set up a multi-room audio system using Echo speakers. Open the Alexa app on your phone and set up all your devices. Select the Devices option at the bottom. Click the Plus icon in the upper-right corner. Tap the Combine speakers option. Select Multi-room Music. Follow the on-screen instructions in the app to complete the setup. I also use the multi-room audio system when I host guests, and for the same reason: it keeps the same vibe going throughout the house. Although it doesn't happen very often, the multi-room music setup is also handy when everyone in the house wants to listen to the same music playlist. Grouping Echo speakers It is certainly worthwhile Combining your Echo speakers isn't the same as grouping them. For anyone new to Echo, I wouldn't recommend setting this one up first, and certainly not before Multi-room music, because it's perhaps the most complex of all the multi-device tweaks. Combining and Grouping are two different features, and you need to set them up separately. After adding my Echo speakers to all my rooms, I created only two groups: Upstairs and Downstairs. Here is how I did it. Open the Alexa app on your phone. Select Devices at the bottom. Click the Plus option, then tap Add group. Tap Combine rooms or groups. Select the preset group names or create your own, and click Next. Select the rooms you want to include in the group and tap Save. I created two, but you can add more as needed. If you have smart home lighting, you can tell Alexa to turn on the lights downstairs. Those lights need to be connected to Alexa, so compatibility is a factor. If all your devices are Alexa-compatible, you can also use the grouping trick to turn off all your devices in a room. I tell Alexa to turn off the bedroom, and it switches off both the lights and fans. I use this feature every day. Establishing a two-way conversation We use it quite a lot nowadays It's been only a few months since my partner and I started living together. When one of us is in the kitchen, the other can communicate and say when we need to prepare an additional dish. That's how I take advantage of the two-way conversation feature. But it doesn't have to be limited to talking to your partner or chef in the kitchen. You can talk to anyone in any room in your house if all the speakers are connected to the same account. It's easy: enable the Drop In feature. Here is how to do it. Open the Alexa app on your phone and tap the Devices option. Select the Device Type Filter. Select Echo & Alexa. Choose your device. Tap the Settings icon. Click the Communications option. Tap Drop In, and turn it on. This is simpler than the previous two setup processes. So, if you want to start with something simple and fun, try the Drop In functionality first. You can also establish a video connection if you have an Echo Show, since Drop In also supports displays. Make one-way announcements in all your rooms This is a pure Squid Game vibe No one in my family likes shouting through the house to call someone. But it wasn't always the case, at least until I set up the multi-device system. But now, it gives me a pure Squid Game vibe. Like the announcement before every game in the widely popular Squid Game TV series, I can broadcast my short messages to every Echo speaker in all my rooms. This is a genius way to tell everyone in the house that dinner is ready. My partner and I do it almost every day. Here are the steps to follow if you want to do the same in your house. Open the Alexa app on your phone and tap More. Choose the Communicate option. Select Announce. Select the microphone and record the voice message you want to broadcast, or type your message. If you prefer typing the announcement instead of recording it, I'd say it's more exciting. It allows you to use emojis to add sound effects to your messages. If you have an Echo Show device, you can make announcements with animated 3D characters. But regardless of the Echo you use, it'll announce your message using Alexa's voice by default. You can change this from the Announcement Preference page in Settings. Again, for all this to work, all Echo speakers in the house need to connect to the same account. My Echo speakers now work together, and I'm not going back This is not repurposing. This is one of the things Amazon Echo speakers are designed to do, and none of this is new to the Echo speakers. All these features have been available for years. A lack of curiosity made me discover these features so late. Like most Echo speaker users I know, I kept telling myself that a smart speaker like the Amazon Echo is a fancy way of turning the lights on or off. Being able to control your electronic appliances helps, but Echo is more than that when you know how to turn those smart speakers into a unified home system. My Amazon Echo smart speakers are no longer collecting dust after I made them work together. I have nothing to gain and everything to lose if I go back. So, I chose to stay.