Amazon has quietly unveiled a $20 Alexa distant

Amazon served up a slew of flashy Echo audio system and shows throughout its massive fall {hardware} occasion in New York Metropolis final week, however its most sensible and inexpensive Alexa announcement didn’t get any stage time. 

Slated to ship on October 30, the $20 Amazon Fundamentals Good Dimmer Swap and Distant is simply that—a palm-sized distant that allows you to management your Alexa-connected good units in addition to set off Alexa routines. 

Noticed on Amazon’s web site by Engadget, the Amazon Fundamentals Good Dimmer Swap and Distant appears to be like to be a helpful alternative for Echo Buttons, the jumbo-sized Alexa-enabled remotes that had been discontinued a number of years in the past. 

The brand new distant can also be a rival to the Flic Button, a compact push button that helps quite a lot of good house platforms, together with Alexa. 

Amazon’s new coin cell-powered distant bears a powerful resemblance to the Philips Hue Dimmer Swap, with the four-button change element designed to magnetically snap into its matching wall plate. You’ll be able to mount the wall plate utilizing the included adhesive tape, whereas mounting holes mean you can screw the plate to the wall. You could possibly additionally lay the distant on a bedside desk or affix it to a metallic floor, like the bottom of a lamp. 

The high button options an LED indicator, whereas the opposite buttons are marked with (respectively) two, three, and 4 raised dots. The LED will blink totally different colours relying on whether or not the distant is in setup mode, registered and dealing with Alexa, encountered an error, or is working low on battery life. 

Getting began with the Amazon Fundamentals Good Dimmer Swap and Distant appears pretty easy. Simply pull out the plastic battery tab, guarantee you have got a close-by Echo gadget powered on (all however the earliest Echo good audio system and shows are supported), press a button on the distant, and hearth up the Alexa app. The app ought to robotically detect the distant and step you thru the setup course of. 

As soon as that’s accomplished, you possibly can arrange the distant to manage nearly any Alexa-connected good units, starting from good lights and blinds to good locks and thermostats. You can too use the change to set off Alexa routines; for instance, you can configure a button on the distant to set off a routine that dims your good lights and turns in your Amazon Hearth TV. 

This information story is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the perfect good lights.