Sonos is one of the ultimate Smart Home speakers, allowing you to connect your entire home and play almost unlimited music sources.  In this How To we are looking at how to connect the Smart Speakers to IFTTT, the home automation service.

If you are now aware of IFTTT it connects any integrated tech together in appletts, using the principle of If This Then Do That. This becomes very useful the more Smart Tech you have, for example If someone presses your Ring doorbell, mute your Sonos music.

How to connect Sonos to IFTTT

(Required: IFTTT account, Sonos Speaker)

Step 1. Make sure you Sonos system is up to date, to do this open the app and select:

More > Settings > Online Updates

Step 2.  Check your Sonos system is signed into your account, open the app and check:

More > Settings > Account Settings

If you are signed in it will show as Logged in and your username. Make a note of the username and password as it is required later.

Step 3. Visit the IFTTT dedicated Sonos page:  https://ifttt.com/sonos once there click connect.

Step 4. Sign into Sonos – don’t worry you are not giving IFTTT your Sonos credentials, just giving it limited access to the functionality.  If you look at the URL you will see the login is done with “API.Sonos.com” not IFTTT.

Step 5.  Confirm you give permission, this is so it can send commands to your speakers and system.Step 6. IFTTT is now connected to Sonos. You can now choose one of the 28 pre-made appletts or make your own.

Here is selection of our favourite pre-made appletts:

• Reduce the volume when someone rings my Ring doorbell 
• Stop all music if a Nest Protect smoke alarm emergency
• Stop my music when my Uber arrives

Step 7. To make your own applett, click ‘New Applett’. You will now see an empty applett. Click plus to add any trigger, currently Sonos cannot be a trigger only an action.

Here are some ideas we had:

How to connect Ring to Sonos

In this example we are going to make an applett that plays a doorbell sound over Sonos if someone presses our Ring doorbell.Now click + and select Sonos and choose the action:
For this example click Play Favourite.

Step 8. Open the Sonos app and search songs for ‘Doorbell sound effect‘. We found a good selection on Spotify.
Choose the song you select and select ‘Add Song to My Songs’.

Step 9. Refresh the IFTTT page and in the drop down you will now see the Doorbell sound. Select the speaker to play on and press Create action.
Now when anyone presses your Ring doorbell a doorbell sound will sound over your Sonos speaker!

Other ideas we had:

Connect Next Protect to Sonos

In this example we connect Sonos to Nest Protect, in the event of an emergency an alarm is played over Sonos.  To do this simply select Nest Protect as the trigger, selecting Emergency.

Then as above but this time choose an alarm sound and add it to your My Sonos.

Good luck creating your own appletts, let us know what you created in the comments!

For more helpful hints tips and Smart Home news don’t forget to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

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We recently discovered someone had used their Amazon Echo to create a seating plan for their wedding. Then using it on their big day to let guests find their seats.

We thought this was an amazing idea and great fun for guest! Although you might want to consider also having a traditional table plan for those who hate tech or if there are a few guests.

Here is a simple tutorial showing how you can do it yourself, with no programming skills. Using a free amazing tool called Storyline.

Here is the video that inspired the tutorial.

How to make an Alexa interactive wedding seating plan!

The first thing you need to know is this is done via an Alexa Skill.

Skills are like apps that as you might have guessed, give Alexa more skills. These can easily be added via the phone app or just by asking Alexa.

What do you need?

• Google Account – Storyline links to your Google Login.
• Amazon Account
• Amazon Echo – Any will do!

Step 1. Create your table plan list

The first thing you need is your actual table plan, to make it easier later a simple list of who is on what table.

For example:

• Henry McLean – Top Table
• Danny Low – Table 2 – Gold

No need to do this on a computer if you prefer pen and paper as its only a visual reference for later.

Step 2. Setup your skill

Using your Google account sign into Storyline and select ‘Create Skill’.

Then select ‘New Custom Skill’ and give your skill a name, this will be the invocation name so choose something good, for example ‘Henry and Dannys Wedding’. Then select your time zone from the drop down and select No Template.

You will now see the Storyboard main screen, this shows all the blocks and default connections.

Step 3. Understand blocks

The next thing to understand is Stroyline works in blocks that connect together to create a Skill.
Blocks contain interactions with Alexa, either her asking you something or a user answering something.

The first block you will see is the welcome block, this is the block that opens when a user opens a skill. Think of it like a journey the user starts in one block and depending on how the user interacts with Alexa depends where they end up on their journey.

Click the Welcome Block – this is the first thing to load when the skills is opened.

Within the block you will see two types of icons:

• Speaker – These represent Alexa saying something, see the welcome message
• People – These represent a user saying something
• Arrows – This is to handle an unexpected reply, called else
• Music Note – This is to add an audio element
• Code Square – This is to connect it to a web service with programming.

Click the welcome message and edit it as this will be the first thing your guests hear

Step 4. Add Guests

Now you need to add your guests to your Welcome Block. To do this click the people icon inside the Welcome Block and add their name, for example: Henry McLean.

When their name has been added below the name you will see three stacked lines. This is to add variations of their name, for example ‘Tom’ might say ‘Tommy’ or ‘Thomas’. You don’t have to add these if there aren’t any, for example Henry is just Henry

NOTE: If you are desperately looking for the save button in Storyline, don’t worry it autosaves!

Keep adding your guests until they are all listed inside your Welcome Block.

When they are all added click the plus arrow top right to add a new regular block.

Name this block Not found guests this will be used if Alexa cannot understand the guest or cannot find them.

Next click the grey speaker icon and add something for Alexa to say.

Then go back to your Welcome Block, and click the arrow icon else and connect to Not found guests block.

Step 5. Add Tables

To do this we are going to make a new block for each table. Again click the square with the plus symbol in it, top right and select regular block. A block will be added.

Click the name of the block and name it, for example: Table 2 Gold

Now we need to make Alexa say the name of the table. To do this click the speaker symbol in the block and add your message for Alexa to read. You can use normal punctuation and Alexa will just read it.

To add a bit of suspense you can add a delay by using <break time=”0.1s” />

If you make a mistake and want to remove a table click the dots top right and click remove block.

Step 6. Allocate the guests.

Now you should have all your guests in the welcome block and all your tables set up as separate blocks. The next thing to do is assign guests to tables.

On your Welcome Block click a guest, you will see an arrow to connect a user. From the drop down select their table.

Go through each guest selecting a table.

Step 7. Essential blocks

Next you need to customise the required blocks, to do this click the block and edit the text.

The required blocks are:

Help – This block opens if a user asks for help at any point, as part of it you must have a Yes and No. By default the yes goes back to the start and the no goes to the Stop Block.

Stop – This is if a user says stop at any point.

That is it, hard work done.

Step 9. Test the skill

The quickest way to test the skill is in browser clicking the play button top right. Hopefully it should work exactly as you wanted. However note this is only a simulation.
If not you can edit and adapt your skill before publishing. If your stuck let us know in the comments below and we will try to help.

Thats it, your hard work is done!

Step 10. Go live!

We suggest you only publish it to your own Amazon Echo as this keeps it as a surprise. If you really want to you can publish from Storyline into the full Alexa Skill Store but then anyone can access it. The other benefit to keeping ‘local’ is you can do it instantly NOW and do not need to complete forms or design icons or wait for Amazon to test and approve it.

To go live on your own Amazon Echo you release the skill as development. To do this click the upload to Alexa button top right. You will now be asked to connect to an Amazon Developer account, if you do not have one don’t worry its free and you can sign in with Amazon to make one.

This will add it to your registered Amazon Echo and keep it private. A green tick indicates it has been uploaded. If you open the Alexa app on your phone and click your skills scroll far right, you will see it under dev skills.

Now you can ask Alexa ‘Open Henry and Dannys Wedding’ or whatever you named your skill to try it in real life.

Let us know how you get on with your skill in the comments and don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Recently there have been a few stories circulating regarding privacy fears with Amazon Alexa. In this guide we look at what you can do to your Amazon Alexa Security to make it more secure and prevent these potential problems.

1. Check your Drop-In settings

Drop in is a brilliant feature that allows users to call each other or as Amazon call it ‘Drop in’ on each other. The potential security concern is by default anyone in your contacts and anyone in your household can drop in – without warning.

Drop in is controlled on a device level, this means if you have multiple Alexa devices you will need to change the settings for each.

If you never plan on using this feature the easiest option is to disable it. This can be done inside the Alexa app: Settings > Alexa > Drop In > Off

If you like the idea of it but want to secure it you have two options:

• • Household only, this limits it to users within your household account
  • On, however check to see who has permission and restrict those you do not want

Drop in permission per contract be found in the app: Contacts > Permissions > Allow Drop In.

All contacts that are black have an Amazon Alexa, all greyed out contacts do not.

2. Think about voice purchasing!

Being able to buy with your voice is something straight out of a Hollywood film. The potential concern is anyone could order expensive unwanted items.

If you never plan on voice purchasing you can disable the feature in the app: Settings > Alexa Account > Voice Purchasing > Purchase by voice > OFF

If you like this feature and just want to secure it this can be done with a 4-digit pin number. Found in the app: Settings > Alexa Account > Voice Purchasing > Require voice code > Enter a 4-digit code.

Note as this is only a 4-digit code it is not very secure but better than nothing. As with all passwords avoid sequential and repeated numbers and anything easily guessable like date of births. If in doubnt use a password generator like Norton password generator.

3. Enable Alexa request sounds

Alexa is listening for its trigger word, by default Alexa. If it incorrectly identifies a word as Alexa she will either perform an action it thought it heard or prompt the user for input.

The potential security concern here is if it incorrectly hears Alexa and starts an action, listening to the conversation.

The best solution is to take steps to make you aware if Alexa is triggered, this way you know it is listening and can tell it to stop. Saying Stop to Alexa cancels any action or innput.

This is done by enabling Alexa request sounds, Alexa then makes a chime everytime it is triggered.  This is done in the app: Setting > Sounds > Request Sounds > Start of Request > ON

When you now use her trigger word you will hear a notification sound.

4. Check your history

Alexa keeps a record of all interactions. If you have concerns or if Alexa just mishears you and awakes you can check in the app to see what happened. This can be found in: Alexa > History. You can also report false activations to Amazon.

5. Learn how to disable your Alexa microphone

Due to the nature of Alexa it has a built-in microphone to ensure it is on hand when you need it. This can however be disabled if you are specifically security conscious and enabled again when you want to use Alexa. Disabling it does however stop Alexa being invoked so this is a temporary action as it will not work when disabled.

To disable the microphone, press the microphone button on the device, the outer light will now turn red to alert you its disabled.

For more top tips make sure to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

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If you don’t know what Monzo is, it’s a super smart app-based UK bank. They received their full UK banking license in April 2017.

Sorry international readers currently Monzo is only available on the UK.

Monzo is taking the industry by storm due to its unique and innovative features.  One new feature is the ability to connect Monzo to IFTTT.  If you don’t know what IFTTT is it allows you to connect all your smart tech and devices together in applets. The possibilities are endless!

As Monzo connects to IFTTT you can connect it to Alexa!

In this example we use Alexa to move money into savings at your command. Perhaps one day your feeling rich, or don’t buy that morning coffee? Use this tip to move the money into savings.

How to connect Monzo to Alexa?

(Required: IFTTT account, Monzo Card, Amazon Alexa)

Step 1. Login to IFTTT, and select new applet
Step 2. Click + and select Amazon Alexa, click ‘Say a specific phrase’

Step 3. Choose your trigger, we chose ‘Save money’
Step 4. That is the IF setup now its the THAT – click the + on THAT

Step 5.  Now click on Monzo and enable the connectivity.

(NOTE: You are giving IFTTT limited access to your Monzo account but it cannot withdraw funds only move into pots and perform basic read functionality)

Step 6. Select Move ‘Money into a pot’, If you don’t know how to create a Monzo pot here is more information. Basically they are saving pots within your account.
Step 7.  You now select the pot and the amount, we created a special pot for this and chose £2. If you want to create a special pot you need to do so on the app.

Step 8. You can now review your applet and save it.
Step 9. Test it! Say the trigger as shown above, for example ‘Alexa trigger save money’. Enjoy saving money!
For more helpful hints tips and smart home news don’t forget to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

The post How to connect Alexa to Monzo in 9 simple steps! appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.

Alexa announcements allow you to use your Amazon Echo’s as a one-way intercom between rooms. Ideal when you have more than one Echo around your house.  Uses include announcing dinner is ready or someone’s favourite program is about to start on TV!

How do I use Alexa announcements in the UK?

Simply say to Alexa:

“Announcement”

She will then reply:

“What’s the announcement?”

She will then record your reply and repeat it across the other echo’s on your network. This will be announced with a tone and then:

“Announcing… {{recording of your reply}}”

The feature can also be invoked via

“Alexa tell everyone…{{your statement}}”

What are the limitations of Alexa Announcements?

At present it is impossible to limit to set rooms, for example only the living room or not in the bedrooms. However announcements can be stopped via the Do Not Disturb feature.

What Amazon Echo devices does it work on?

Alexa Announcements are supported by all Echo devices. See Amazon for details.

The post How to use Alexa Announcements in the UK appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.

You can now control your Sonos via your Amazon Alexa. If this is news to you read our other guide (How to connect Sonos to Alexa).

One of the biggest frustrations of Alexa is you need to know exactly what to ask to make it work, for example using ‘play’ not ‘listen’.

This is because no matter how smart Alexa is it is just a program and needs clear commands to work out exactly what you want to do.

Sonos One – Voice Controlled Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa Built In

Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Gen) – Smart Speaker with Alexa

Luckily, we have put together the ultimate Sonos Alexa Commands list!

At present Alexa and Sonos only works with:

• Amazon Music
• Pandora
• iHeartRadio
• TuneIn Radio
• SiriusXM

*Spotify is coming soon

One other important point is Alexa needs your device names to be unique, for example if Bedroom is a Sonos and a Hue bulb it will cause issues. To resolve this just check in Alexa > Smart Home that names are unique.

Master Commands

These work with all providers. In our example, we use Kitchen but this can be any room.

Alexa, turn it up/down in the KITCHEN
Alexa, louder/quieter in the KITCHEN
Alexa, set the volume to 5 (50%) in the KITCHEN [0-10 volume levels]
Alexa, softer in the KITCHEN
Alexa, mute the KITCHEN
Alexa, unmute the KITCHEN

Alexa, pause/stop/resume in the KITCHEN
Alexa, pause/stop/resume the music in the KITCHEN
Alexa, skip/next in the KITCHEN
Alexa, play the next/previous song/track in the KITCHEN
Alexa, pause
Alexa, resume on KITCHEN
Alexa, next song/track
Alexa, previous song/track
Alexa, stop
Alexa, skip
Alexa, skip song/track
Alexa, what’s playing in KITCHEN?

TuneIn (Radio) commands

Alexa, play (TuneIn station/radio call sign) in the KITCHEN

For example: Alexa, play Radio One in the KITCHEN

Alexa, put on (TuneIn station/radio call sign) in the KITCHEN
Alexa, start playing (TuneIn station/radio call sign) in the KITCHEN

Amazon Music specific commands

Alexa, play music in the KITCHEN (Alexa will select music)
Alexa, play (artist) in the KITCHEN

For example: Alexa, play Queen in the KITCHEN

Alexa, play (song name) by (artist) in the KITCHEN
Alexa, play the album (album name) by (artist) in the KITCHEN
Alexa, play (activity) music in the KITCHEN

Make sure to like us on Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter for updates as more commands are released.

PS. You can buy Sonos speakers and Amazon Echo at Amazon.

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Sonos has officially announced the free software update that enables you to connect Sonos to your existing Alexa.

This will allow you to control your Sonos device from Alexa, for example:

“Alexa Play Jazz in the Living Room”
“Alexa stop playing music”

Note this is a open BETA so is not their final release, expect a few small bugs

You can buy Sonos speakers and Amazon Echo at Amazon.

Sonos One SL – The Powerful Microphone-Free Speaker

How to connect Sonos to Alexa?

This guide assumes you already have a setup Amazon Alexa and have the app installed.
Also enable Wi-Fi and be on the network you use to control Sonos.

1. Before you start you need to make sure you Sonos app is up to date, we used an iPhone

2. Once updated, open the app – you should receive an prompt for a System Update. Click ‘Learn More’.
3. Now you are take to the update screen and told the update is for Alexa.
4. The update will now install – do not turn off your system while it is doing so. Any playing music will stop.

5. Once done, open the Alexa App > Skills > Search > Sonos  then press enable

6.  You will now be prompted to sign into your Sonos Account. If you do not have your system setup with an account you need to do that within the app ( More > Settings > My Sonos Account).

7. You now need to accept giving Alexa control of Sonos

8.  Alexa will now scan you network to find devices

9. Your devices will now be found!
10. Now you can talk to your Sonos!!

The name of the Sonos is the name you gave it in the Sonos App. This is also shown in devices.

Example commands:

“Alexa play Jazz in Living Room”

Let us know in the comments how you get on! Check out our other Smart Home UK articles.

Make sure you like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for more helpful guides.

Reminder: You can buy Sonos speakers and Amazon Echo at Amazon.

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UPDATE: 10/3/2108

We purchased a selection of Trådfri bulbs from Ikea.com in the UK, these all came with the new firmware installed. Hopefully this means the firmware is now fully rolled out so jump to step 2 on the below guide. Also note Alexa fully works once added to the network!

We originally brought you the exclusive comment from IKEA about Trådfri eventually supporting ZigBee  interoperability and therefore allowing you to add IKEA lights to your Hue network. Here is the original article.

For those of you wondering what on earth this means, it basically means they both operate using the same standard meaning they ‘must’ work together.

Now the software update has been released here is a detailed guide showing you exactly how to add IKEA Smart bulbs to your Philips Hue network!

You can buy Philips Hue bulbs from Amazon,currently for under £25 for a pair.

Philips Hue White Wireless Lighting B22 10W Smart LED Bulb Twin Pack iOS Android [Energy Class A+]

Unfortunately there is no way to check the bulb firmware from the packaging.

The bulbs we tested were from central London on 20/9/17 and still had the old firmware. This means they require an update so you need a controller and hub.

If your reading this a few months later you might be ok to try just a bulb and jump to part 2.

Don’t forget to check our our Philips Hue review!

Let us know in the comments how you get on and don’t forget to like us on Facebook for the latest guides, reviews and news.

Part 1 – Updating firmware

1. Follow the IKEA instructions setting up your hub, controller and bulb. You do need both the hub and controller to update, sadly just the hub wont do it.
2. Open the Trådfri app and check to see the firmware, now press update. the text will change to ‘Update pending’.
3. Our firmware update took over an hour to install. Once complete the lights blink.
4. Go back into the app and confirm the bulb firmware shows as 1.2.217
5. Make sure the light is on and remove it from the app.
   
6. Turn off the bridge – we found it can cause issues with the Hue Bridge, most likely due to using the same channel by default.

Part 2 – Adding to Hue network

1. Turn the light that has the IKEA bulb in on and off 6 times quickly, this resets its settings but maintains the firmware.
2. Turn off all other Hue lights, to prevent ZigBee interference, and if possible move the IKEA bulb near the Philips Hue hub, ideally 30 CM or less.When we did ours we put the bulb in a portable lamp so we could put next to the hub before moving the bulb later once added to the network.
3. Open the Hue app and search for the a bulb, in the same way you normally would.
   
4. The bulb will appear as ‘colour temperature light 1’
5. You can now name it add it to any room or group as you would a Philips Hue Bulb. We named our bulb ‘IKEA TRAFADIL’ so you could clearly see it in the group.

If you could not find your bulb via the App you can try a 3rd party application called Lamp Finder, we didn’t need to use it but it is an option.

Part 3 – How to pair your IKEA Remote to Phillips Hue Lights.

However when you you pair them to the remote it removes them from the Philips Hue Hub. This means the app and Home Kit, Alexa can no longer talk to it. Also it is slightly tricky to add them back to the Philips hub.

You can however put up to 10 lights to one remote.

We spent a lot of time trying to pair the remote to the Philips Hue hub but didn’t find a solution despite getting them to communicate!

1. Turn off other hue lights
2. Hold the remote next to the bulb
3. Hold down the small multipurpose button on the underside of the controller, the same one used to pair with IKEA smart lighting.
4. Keep it held down for a maximum of 10 seconds or till the light stops flashing, for example if can be 5 seconds till it stops.
5. The light will now be controllable by the IKEA Remote.

Reminder: You can buy Philips Hue bulbs from Amazon,currently for under £25 for a pair.

The post How to add IKEA Trådfri to Philips Hue appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.

Amazon introduced Alexa, its virtual assistant back in 2014. Read our Amazon Echo Review here.

The brilliant thing about Alexa is she is always listening ready to respond and help out.

In theory, she only records and responds when she hears the trigger, by default Alexa.

However, she can be accidentally triggered and then accidentally record. This is because she has been designed to be sensitive to potential triggers, to ensure users with any accent can trigger her.

Amazon Echo (3rd generation) | Smart speaker with Alexa, Charcoal Fabric

Think about it, you are very unlikely to complain about false triggers, however if she never responded when you spoke to her you would definitely complain.

Here is how to review your Alexa history and replay your Alexa recordings as well as deleting them.

When we reviewed our history, there were quite a few accidental recordings. These were mostly triggered by the TV. This works for any Alexa device; dot, echo or show. You can buy these from Amazon.

1. Open the Amazon Alexa App

2. Click Settings on the main left hand menu

2. Scroll down and click History

3. You now see the list of events

4. To Playback or delete the recording click the listing.

Thanks for reading! PS. You can buy these from Amazon.

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