Among all the things that Amazon announced today, one of them was a subscription service called Guard Plus that works with all the new home security hardware it announced.
This is essentially the next step up from Alexa Guard, and although it does cost money where Alexa Guard does not, Guard Plus comes with more features.
For those extra features Amazon believes that consumers won’t mind paying the monthly fee. And it may very well be right. Especially if any of those consumers are planning on buying any of that new home security equipment.
Amazon Guard Plus costs $4.99 a month, and mimics you while you’re away
Amazon’s new subscription service has a few tricks up its sleeve that may just make it worth the $4.99 monthly fee.
For starters, it can mimic you while you’re away from home. More specifically, it mimics how you use your smart lights on a day to day basis. So as to not attract attention from your lights being off all the time.
To engage this you’ll need to set the service to Away Mode. And after doing so it can basically turn your smart lights on and off as you would if you were home. More or less it learns (or already knows) what times you use the lights and what times you don’t.
Using that knowledge it will to the best of its ability, make it seem as if you’re still there. It does more than that though, naturally. It can also help you reach emergency help if needed.
Ask Alexa to call for help and it’ll reach out to emergency services
We all need a little help sometimes. To that end, Guard Plus is here to help. All you have to do is ask Alexa to call for help by saying Alexa, call of help, and the service will contact emergency services for you.
Alexa will make a call to trained emergency response agents who can then assist you by calling the fire department, police, or call for an ambulance if needed.
All of this could save the user time in a more serious emergency if they aren’t able to make it to a phone. Guard Plus can also detect potential emergencies and then alert you about them. Like breaking glass or footsteps during times that no one is usually there.
It can even tell your Echo to play the sounds of a barking dog if motion is detected. All in an attempt to deter intruders. Amazon is rolling out this service in the near future. If you’re interested in checking it out, you can sign up for an email alert when it’s available.