Finally, no more scrolling through an endless list of devices named “First Motion Sensor” or “Fourth Light” in Amazon’s Alexa app. The smart home controller is getting the option of a new user interface — Map View.
Launching November 14th in public preview, the new map interface allows you to create a digital version of your home’s floor plan and pin your Alexa-connected devices to each room. “Now you have a single place where you can quickly check the status of everything, see which Echo is playing music, see the temperature, see if lights are on or off, and everything is controllable from the map,” Amazon’s Charlie French, director of smart home, explained in an interview ahead of the launch.
First announced at Amazon’s fall hardware event in September, Map View is opt in, and if you signed up to be notified about it, you should receive an email to try it out this week, says French. The preview is currently closed, so if you missed out, you’ll have to wait until Amazon opens it up again.
The interface is launching first in the Alexa mobile app and will come to the new Echo Hub smart home controller in early 2024. That device is due for release later this year.
Once the map is created, you should be able to drag and drop your devices to each room and control them from there in the app. You only need to build the map once, French says, but you can add and delete devices at any time.
This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
