How to connect Alexa to y...

In addition to playing music and telling you about the weather, you can use Alexa to control smart lights around your home. Imagine being able to walk into your house and turn on all the lights at the same time, or turn off the lights in your room before going to bed with just your voice.

Here's how to connect Alexa to smart lights via the mobile app and how to set up context-aware lighting.

How to connect Alexa to smart lights

1. Open the Alexa app, then turn on the light you want to connect.

2. Navigate to the Devices tab, then tap All Devices.

Quick tip: If you see a button that says Lights, tap that to connect.

3. Scroll down the list to find the light you want to connect. Tap the name of the light.

What is context-aware lighting?

Context-aware lighting is an Alexa feature that turns on the lights in whatever room of the house you're in with a simple command: "turn on the lights." With context-aware lighting, you don't need to specify which overhead light or lamp you want to turn on.

To set up context-aware lighting, you'll need an Amazon Echo device and smart lights. From there, build an Alexa-enabled light group so that all the lights in a specific room or section of your house all turn on with one command.

Once set up, say "turn on the lights" and Alexa will turn on the light group assigned to the Amazon Echo device you are nearest to. If there are lights in another room you want to control, you can control them by saying the light group name.

How to build a light group for context-aware lighting

1. Open the Alexa app. Navigate to the Devices tab.

2. Tap the plus + sign at the top-right of the screen, then Add Group.

3. Name the group, then select lights to assign them to the group.

4. Choose an Amazon Echo device to assign the light group to. When you're finished, tap Save.