New Alexa Service Simplifies Smart Home for Property Managers

Amazon announced an Alexa service for apartment property managers that lets them set up and manage Alexa-based smart home experiences in their buildings. Alexa for Residential doesn't require tenants to have an Amazon account or set up a device to use the service, Amazon blogged Thursday. Tenants can ask Alexa to remind them when it's recycling day, play the news and weather every morning or control their apartment's smart home features. Iotas, Stratis and Sentient Property Services are the first smart home integrators to use Alexa for Residential; they're due to open multiple smart apartment residences this fall. Installing voice-enabled experiences for apartment complexes has been time-consuming and costly for property managers, who had to reset each device individually, or buy new ones, when a resident moved, Amazon said. Under the Alexa for Residential program, devices are permanent fixtures, and property managers can remotely reset devices to default settings when residents move. Property managers don’t have access to any customer data, and voice recordings are automatically deleted daily, Amazon said. Customers who link a personal account will have full control of their privacy settings “as if the device was their own, and their preferred privacy settings will be automatically applied,” it said. Residents can unlink their account at any time; at move out, in-unit devices can be reset along with the rest of the smart home devices.