Amazon's Map View puts your smart home devices on a digital floor plan
You can tap on a device based on its location in your home to manage it.
During its annual fall event on Wednesday, Amazon showed off a new way for people to control all of their compatible smart home devices. It's called Map View and it will first be available on select phones in the US later this year, namely LiDAR-equipped iOS devices.
You'll be able to create a digital floor plan of your home using your phone and Map View will display all the devices you add to it. Rather than using Alexa or another app to manage a device, you can see its location in your home and tap on it to (for instance) switch on a light, bump up the volume of an Echo speaker or change the temperature. You'll be able to view live camera feeds through Map View too.
It looks like a fairly straightforward and intuitive user interface. For one thing, you won't have to remember the names of all of your devices, just where they are in your home.
Amazon says it's an opt-in experience; you can decide which rooms to add to the floor plan and which devices to include. You can delete your floor plan at any time as well.
You'll be able to set up Map View in the Alexa app on iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, 13 Pro and Pro Max, 14 Pro and Pro Max, 15 Pro and Pro Max and all iPad Pro models.
On a related note, keen readers may remember that Amazon is attempting to buy iRobot (and has been for over a year). Several Roomba devices are capable of mapping out your home to help with cleaning them. It's not difficult to imagine how that might integrate into Map View.
Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.
Update September 20, 12:52PM ET: Added more details about compatible iOS devices.
