Amazon Guard Available yet? (May 2019)

I just checked and it still says not available for me. I was hoping to use these to listen for my Nest Protects to automatically call the fire department via my Ring Alarm. Not sure if that will be possible. This statement is confusing:

“You can use a Drop In call to verify if there’s anything wrong, and send alerts to ADT or Amazon’s own Ring if you have professional security services through either brand.”

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Been using it for a few months, now. Too bad is only controllable by voice or manually in-app. I hope they’ll make this available in routines soon. It’s a shame you cannot turn it in and off with presence, for example.

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No joy. I still get the Thanks for your interest in Alexa Guard screen. I have been waiting for this function for months. Ugh…

This Just became available for me today.

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Most fire departments in the US do not accept automated calls from residential systems. Too many false alarms.

From the link @jkp provided:

Amazon says that Alexa Guard is not a substitute for a home alarm system and does not have any capability to contact emergency services.

The new integrations, so far limited to the ring security system and the ADT skill (which is not the same as the SmartThings/ADT system) Will cause guard to act like an acoustic sensor on those systems and send in the sensor alert to the central monitoring center for those companies.

At that point, it is treated like any other sensor alert for those two programs. The human at the central monitoring center will make the assessment as to whether it is likely a real problem, they will do their phone call verification if that’s part of their process, and then the human will call emergency services for you.

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I have a fire tablet running Lannouncer. I wonder if I announce “Alexa, I’m Leaving” as part of my Goodbye routine- will this trigger Guard? Both the tablet and echo are in the same room.

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I didn’t think about it. Worth a try, though. Let me know if it works. I might have Sonos announce “Alexa, I am leaving” :slight_smile:

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The article @jkp linked answers some of the questions. “Alexa, I’m leaving“ arms it

Tony, How do you know you got the update?

That brings up another question I’ve had…

If you create an Amazon routine (not a SmartThings routine) Which makes one echo device say something like “Echo, turn on the porch,” will another echo device in the same room respond to it? Let’s assume they have two different wake words, with “echo” being the wake word for the second device.

That would make automation pretty simple.

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With that you don’t really need the “Guard” feature, you just set up the two Echo devices to talk to each other while you are away. Have one say “Hey Echo, I heard some noise” every 5 min and the other to respond: “Hey Alexa, I did too, I am calling the police!” …

Sorry, I’m not following… all I was talking about was automating the “turn on“ aspect of the guard feature. The one where you have to say “echo, I’m leaving.“

Go into Alexa app → Settings → Guard
(I use Android app)
It used to have “coming soon”, today it took me through the setup process instead.

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I know, that made me think of just having the two Echo devices chatting while away using each other’s timed routines. Just a joke. Your idea might work just as Lannouncer or Sonons would, via TTS.

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They are doing something. In my Devices tab on the Alexa App, I know have a box that says Alexa Guard can help you keep your home safe LEARN MORE, but the link still points to the Thank you for your interest in Alexa Guard.

I think they might be doing a slow roll to keep it from crashing…

If I can get this working, I actually have 1 more full on Echo I want to get, plus 2 more Echo Dots and 2 Echo Subs.

The non master bedrooms each get a 3rd gen echo dot, the kitchen and garage workshop get a 2nd gen, the living room and master bedroom get a full on 2nd gen Echo + Echo sub.

I am actually considering doing a stereo pair in the living room / master bedroom each with the echo sub. The idea is for home theater with automation in each space…

I need to figure out how to get Alexa to shut up while FireTV is playing a movie though…

Thank you, I have it as well. Help says to speak “alexa i’m leaving” (echo light ring will rotate white light) and “alexa i’m home” to change Guard to Away / Home mode. Hopefully they will add routine (and IFTTT) actions/triggers for this. I also set a couple smart lights to simulate via the “away lighting”. It appears to work with my old and new dots.

Once Guard is set up, you can also go into alexa app, devices and tap the Guard home/away button at top to switch modes.

I do have two Alexa devices within earshot of each other. I just told one “Alexa, Simon says ‘Alexa, what time is it?’”. The other Alexa did respond with the time.

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There’s a bunch of YouTube videos like this. I like this one: https://youtu.be/vmINGWsyWX0

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Right, I know you can do it with a non-Amazon speaker device, people have been doing that for a while.

I just didn’t know if using two Amazon devices would also work. :sunglasses::sunglasses:

@BigHoss curious to see once you get guard setup if it lets you use the SmartThings ADT skill to contact ADT or not.

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