Alexa Can Control Smart Thermostats Without Voice Input

A recent update for some of Amazon’s Alexa Smart Speakers now lets them act on their own to control certain devices, including, with user permission.

The revamped ‘Hunches’ feature was launched in select areas at the end of last month and enables Alexa to act proactively to control the settings of smart home products. This could eliminate the need for voice command inputs from the user and enhance automation.

How Could I Use Hunches With My Wiser Smart Thermostat?

Previously, Hunches would offer suggestions for controlling your smart home devices. For example, if you’d overridden your smart heating settings and then said “Goodbye Alexa”, the speaker might ask if you want the default heating levels restored.

If the user gives permission, Alexa could make these changes automatically. For example, if you frequently ask Alexa to turn the heating up by a degree or two in the morning while you work from home, Hunches could do this for you without you needing to adjust your schedules and without voice input, because it understands this to be a habit of the user.

As well as smart thermostats, Alexa’s Hunches feature can be used on a range of other smart devices, like smart lights, locks and even Smart Plugs.

This feature could also activate Smart Modes like Away Mode based on your regular activity, so it might become a handy feature to use alongside the Wiser app. It has the potential to provide homeowners with more convenience and even better efficiency when controlling home heating and various other smart home devices.

How Do You Set Up Alexa Hunches?

Hunches is currently only available to US users, those with US accounts or select UK customers, but lookout for more news soon on its rollout to more users. Once available, these new features are entirely optional and won’t be implemented without you activating them. To launch the new voice-command-free Hunches feature, simply go on the Alexa app and switch on ‘automatic actions’ in the settings, and choose which linked devices you want to integrate with it.

You can find more information on making your Wiser product an Alexa thermostat here.