Stop searching for the remote and use your voice to control the TV. No, this isn’t an episode of the Jetsons, this is 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Echo, you can now control TV with Alexa using the Logitech Harmony Elite Remote.
This post is sponsored by Best Buy.
Control TV With Alexa
I don’t know about your house, but around here someone is always misplacing the TV remote. It’s even worse now that we have to hide the remote from the baby. It also seems to go missing when it is time to turn the TV off for the kids’ bedtime… it’s a mystery how that happens. But now, problem solved.
“Alexa, turn off TV.”
No whining or complaining. Alexa says, “Ok,” and the TV turns off. If only the kids would brush their teeth that easily.
In all seriousness, controlling the TV with your voice is just cool. Alexa is my personal assistant, I already use it to voice control the lights in our house, our sprinklers, our thermostat and more. The TV just adds to our growing list of cool things Alexa can do.
Logitech Harmony Elite Remote
In order to control TV with Alexa, you need a hub to control the commands like the Logitech Harmony Elite Remote.
In addition to basic commands like on and off, volume up and down and changing the channel, you can also set up commands to control lights and other smart-home activities.
For example, in our house Friday night is movie night. We could set up a command for movie night that turns off our family room and kitchen lights and turns on the TV and Blu-Ray player. So with just a word, the room is ready for a movie. (Again, I wish it were that simple with the kids.)
At the end of the night, we can also create a goodnight setting that turns everything off for the night, including lights we might have turned on and the TV.
In addition to turning on your favorite TV channel, those who use a Roku can use Alexa to switch between apps like Netflix and Hulu to control what you are watching.
The Logitech Harmony Elite Remote has the ability to program an unlimited number of commands to control various devices in your home for different moods and activities.
When you use the remote manually, the Logitech Harmony Elite Remote also has a super-cool touch screen. The universal remote can be used to control your various devices with the press of a button as well. We set up some of the dedicated buttons to manually turn on and off our lights too.
The Amazon Echo Dot and the Logitech Harmony Elite Remote are available from Best Buy.
If you are looking for something to add to your Mother’s Day wish list, this might be the perfect answer. Not only will mom love it, but so will the whole family.
For more things you can do with your Echo Dot, be sure to read my post about how we control lights in our bedroom.
And be sure to watch me control TV with Alexa in the quick video below.