Color Your Smart Home with Wink and Alexa

Drum roll please. Today we’re very excited to introduce a new feature that amplifies what you can do with Wink + Amazon Alexa!

For two years now you’ve been able to dim or turn your smart lighting products on or off with a simple voice command. Now, you can take it a step further by asking Alexa to change the color or temperature of Wink-compatible colored and tunable white bulbs, including the Sylvania Smart Tunable White, Sylvania Smart RGBW and Phillips Hue lighting products.

Say any one of over one hundred commands such as “Alexa, set Living Room to Warm White” or “Alexa, make bedroom light warmer” and she’ll take care of the rest. Here are a few of our other favorites to help spark your creativity:

“Alexa, set kitchen to beige.”
“Alexa, make the living room warmer.”
“Alexa, more color.” 
“Alexa, set man cave to dodger blue.”
“Alexa, less yellow.” 
“Alexa, make the bathroom seashell.”
“Alexa, set dining room to candlelight.”

Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook as we’ll be posting the full list of commands there soon!
 

Amazon Alexa can now control Wink-compatible smart locks

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Today we’re excited to announce a brand new category of Wink-compatible products that work with Amazon Alexa: locks! 

You can now ask Alexa-enabled devices to lock any of the locks (including those from Schlage, Kwikset, and Yale) that work with Wink or check the status of a lock with a simple voice command. For security purposes, Alexa cannot be used to unlock a door at this time.

Connecting your Wink-compatible door locks to Alexa is easy:

  1. If you haven’t already, connect your locks with the Wink app and set individual names for each if you have more than one (Front Door, Back Door, etc.).
  2. Then, enable the Wink Skill within the Alexa app (Settings > Skills > Wink > Enable).
  3. Sign in with your Wink username and password.
  4. From there, say “Alexa, discover new devices.” This can take up to 20 seconds. Your locks will then appear in the Alexa app as the name you gave it in step one.

From there, just say “Alexa, lock the front door” when you’re walking in with arms full of bags after work or “Alexa is the front door locked?” after you’ve parked up on the couch. She’ll take care of the rest. 

Wink was the first smart home platform to work with Alexa when we introduced voice control for select Wink-compatible lighting products in 2015. We’ve since tripled the number of Wink-powered light bulbs and switches that work with Alexa, extended support to Wink-enabled Nest Thermostats, and are thrilled to bring compatibility to locks!

Alexa Can Now Control Wink Lighting Shortcuts

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Hey Alexa fans! Starting today, you can now control Shortcuts that include only Wink-compatible lighting products (light bulbs and switches) with a simple voice command.

Say you have a bunch of lights in the living room that you want to turn off, dim, or change the color of as you’re sitting down for a movie

  1. Set up a “Movie Time” Shortcut in the Wink app, and adjust your lighting products to the desired settings
  2. Go into the Alexa app and select “Discover devices”
  3. Your Shortcut will be discovered, and from there, you’re set!

Simply say "Alexa, turn on Movie Time" and your living room turns into your very own home theater. Go through the above steps to create a “Movie Time Over” Shortcut to change the lights back with Alexa when the movie is over by saying "Alexa, turn on Movie Time Over."

Just keep in mind that if you change the name of your Shortcut in the Wink app, you’ll need to select “Discover devices” in the Alexa app again.

Shortcuts that include non-lighting products will not be discovered by Alexa, but stay tuned, as we’re continuing to work on expanding Alexa support!

 

How to: Use Wink Without Opening the Wink App

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It’s late, you’ve just come home from grocery shopping, and your hands are full. Fumbling once you’re through the front door to find the light switch is a hassle. So is searching for your phone before you get out of the car. Luckily, there are a number of ways you can leverage the power of Wink to make everyday tasks in the home a little bit easier to carry out without even opening the Wink app: 

IFTTT

IFTTT (If This, Then That) is a web service that lets you turn many different products and apps - from Instagram and Dropbox, to Google Calendar and Jawbone - into triggers (IFTTT calls them Recipes) for other actions. IFTTT is a great way to expand the depth of your smart home. For example, you could set up an IFTTT Recipe that turns off the lights, locks the door, and adjusts the thermostat when you’re in bed and set your Jawbone UP to sleep mode. Read more about how to use Wink + IFTTT here.

Wink Robots

Robots can be created within the Wink app to make your connected products and even your location a trigger for other actions to take place (similar to IFTTT). You could set one up that triggers the downstairs lights to turn on whenever the sensor on your front door detects it’s being opened, or another that shuts the garage door, locks the door, and shuts off all the lights after you pull out of the driveway every morning. Read more about how to create a Wink Robot here. 

Wink Schedules

With a Schedule, connected products can be set to turn off products at a desired time, or at Sunrise/Sunset. Particularly handy if you’re someone who often works late into the night, but want to create the illusion that someone is home by having the lights turn on. Read more about how to create a Wink Schedule here.

Amazon Alexa

The Amazon Alexa voice assistant allows you to put many of the automations mentioned above into action, with a simple voice command. You can ask Alexa to turn on/off or dim a Wink-compatible lighting product, or adjust the temperature of a Wink-enabled Nest Thermostat. You can take this a step further by creating a Shortcut within the Wink app (Shortcuts let you control multiple connected products with one tap), activate the Wink Shortcut and Alexa channels within IFTTT, and create The Recipe: “If Alexa is triggered, then activate Wink Shortcut.”