Alexa turns security guard to monitor your home and call emergency services for you
Guard Plus feature works with Amazon Echo smart speakers and Ring and Blink security cameras
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Alexais great at setting timers, updating you on your daily appointments and controlling yoursmart home gadgets, but now the voice assistant has a new trick up its sleeve; acting as a security guard and monitoring your home when you’re not there.
As part of the newGuard Plus Feature, which is currently only available in the US, you’ll get an alert to yoursmartphoneif Alexa identifies an unusual sound such as glass breaking or footsteps when you’re not at home.
In response to the unusual sounds, Alexa can also activate a siren on yourAmazon Echo smart speaker, or if a compatiblehome security cameradetects motion outside your home, Alexa can play the sound of dogs barking, in a bid to scare any intruders off.
Listen in live
The smartphone alert will also allow you to play back the sound Alexa heard, or listen in live to your home, so you can hear for yourself what’s going on – just as you might do with ahome security camera.
The service will also automatically control any compatiblesmart lightsyou have, turning them on and off to appear as if someone is at home.
Alexa can also call the emergency services for you too. If you say “Alexa, call for help” you’ll be put through to the Guard Plus call center, which can dispatch the necessary emergency service to your home.
The Guard Plus feature, which is currently only available in the US, costs $4.99 (about £3.50 / AU$6.50) per month or $49.99 (about £35 / AU$65 ) for a year, although a 30-day free trial is also available.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
It comes as standard as part of the Ring Protect Plus service forRing Video Doorbellsand security cameras, which is priced at $10 per month (£7 / AU$13) or $100 (£70 / AU$130) a year. You will need to link your Ring andAmazonaccounts together in the Ring App to access the Guard Plus features. The service only works with theAmazon Echo(4th generation)Amazon Echo Dot(both 3rd and 4th generation versions),Echo Show(2nd generation and above) and theAmazon Echo Studio.
Carrie-Ann Skinner was formerly Homes Editor at TechRadar, and has more than two decades of experience in both online and print journalism, with 13 years of that spent covering all-things tech. Carrie specializes in smart home devices such as smart plugs and smart lights, as well as large and small appliances including vacuum cleaners, air fryers, stand mixers, and coffee machines. Carrie is now a copy editor at PWC.
Reolink Altas PT Ultra review: a security camera that’s great for continuously monitoring your property
Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam review: would make the perfect indoor security camera if it wasn’t missing this one key thing
Professionals are facing “tech overload” as they try to juggle multiple devices in the workplace
