The Amazon Echo Show is a terrific smart display with numerous capabilities. You can use it to stream Netflix, your favorite playlists, and top podcasts. Need some help cooking dinner? Ask Alexa to pull up a recipe or two for you. Missing mom and dad? As long as they own an Echo Show themselves, Amazon’s Drop In will let you initiate a video call between two different Show devices.
We’re also willing to bet you didn’t know you can use an Echo Show as a basic home security camera. This means you’ll be able to pull up live footage of the room your Echo Show lives in. And if you own the Echo Show 10, you can even rotate the display to face in different directions.
Here’s how to turn your Echo Show into a hidden surveillance device right now!
How to use your Echo Show as a security camera
Turning your Echo Show into a security camera should take no more than a few seconds. Here's how it works:
Step 1: Unlock your Echo Show and enter the Settings menu.
Step 2: Scroll to the Camera option.
Step 3: You'll now see an option called Home Monitoring. Enable this feature.
Step 4: Wrap up the process by verifying your identity, entering your password, and confirming your decision.
Step 5: Now that you've activated the Home Monitoring feature on Echo Show, you'll be able to view its video feed remotely.
Step 6: To drop into the Echo Show's video feed, open the Alexa app on your smartphone or other device.
Step 7: Select the Devices menu at the bottom of the screen.
Step 8: Select the Echo Show device you just enabled. That will pull up the video feed for you to view.
Step 9: Alternatively, you can say "Show me [Echo Show Device]". This will instantly open the feed.
Step 10: During the stream, you'll be able to modify the camera by double-tapping to zoom in and pinching to zoom out. If you have an Echo Show 10, you can swipe your screen to slowly rotate the camera.
How to access camera feeds from your Echo Show
Along with using your Echo Show as a camera, you can use it as a hub to view other security cameras in the network. Most Echo Show devices will let you view up to four cameras at once – turning it into a great central hub to keep tabs on your home. But before viewing your cameras on your Echo Show, you'll first want to place them all into a group. This streamlines the viewing process and makes it easy to pull up all your security cameras with a single voice command. Here's everything you need to know:
Step 1: First, you'll need to group together your cameras. This can be done in the Alexa app.
Step 2: Open the Devices tab, then select the Plus button, followed by Add Group.
Step 3: From here, you can either create a room or combine rooms and device groups.
Step 4: Set a name for your group, then click on the cameras you want in the group. Remember, most Echo Show devices will let you view up to four cameras at once.
Step 5: Once you've created a group, simply say "Show me my [Group Name] cameras. This will pull up a four-way panel with all your feeds. Clicking on a camera feed will let you zoom in or activate two-way audio.
Step 6: To close the feeds, simply say "Alexa, stop".
Step 7: That's it! Remember, you can always change the devices in your group if you decide you want to swap out different feeds.
