Alexa On Apple Watch
You can get Alexa on the Apple Watch
In this post we teach you how to add Alexa to your Apple Watch so you can control your smart home devices with Alexa though your Apple Watch.
Connecting Alexa to your Apple watch adds additional functionality to both devices and allows you to have smart home voice control of almost any smart home device. If you already know about HomeKit and Alexa and just want to learn how to connect Alexa on the Apple Watch you can skip ahead. Otherwise we'll give you a short primer on HomeKit, Alexa, Siri and smart home control.
The Apple Watch has native integration with HomeKit and Siri which allows you to control some smart home devices out of the box with HomeKit and Siri. However not all smart home devices are HomeKit compatible. But the vast majority of smart home devices are Alexa compatible because it’s the most popular voice assistant, which makes adding Alexa to your Apple Watch an incredibly useful hack.
What Is HomeKit?
HomeKit is Apple’s smart home integration system that provides direct integration with Apple iOS and allows you to control smart home devices from one app the “HomeKit” app on your iPhone, Apple Watch or use Siri voice commands to control your smart home using Siri voice commands on your phone or Apple Watch. With HomeKit you can then control your smart light bulbs by saying voice commands to your iPhone like “Siri, turn on the living room lights.”
What Is Alexa?
Alexa is Amazon’s smart voice assistant that allows to ask questions like the weather forecast, your daily schedule, listen to daily news briefings or answer general questions you have. You can also play games with Alexa, listen to music and even watch movies on it, if you have an Alexa device like the Echo Show or Echo Show 5.
In addition to all of those features, Alexa can be a powerful voice assistant for your smart home and is capable of controlling smart home devices like smart thermostats, smart lights, smart cameras and smart locks.
What Can You Do With Alexa on Apple Watch
Once you connect Alexa to your Apple watch it will be capable of using Alexa on the Apple watch just like it is an Alexa device. You can ask it questions or give it Alexa commands just like a stand alone Echo Device. Because there are far more smart home devices that are compatible with Alexa than HomeKit adding Alexa to your Apple watch allows you to control more smart devices with voice commands through your Apple Watch.
If you have a home full of smart home devices but not all of them are compatible with HomeKit controlling them with Alexa on your Apple Watch offers a great alternative.
Hack your Apple Watch to use Alexa on your Apple Watch
How To Setup Alexa On Apple Watch
There isn’t an official Alexa app that you can put on the Apple Watch, but there is a third party app that will connect Alexa on your Apple watch.
You will need to download the Voice In Can App available on iOS store . The Voice in Can app is $1.99 on the app store and will work on the Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad. The App works on wifi and mobile data, so you can use it in your home or on the move.
Add Alexa Your Apple Watch
Download Voice in a Can through the iOS store
Open the app and enter your Amazon Alexa Account information.
Congratulations that Alexa is now connected to your Apple Watch
The voice in a can app works on Gen 2 and later Apple watches but if I were considering getting a new apple watch I would get an Apple Watch with both GPS and Cellular built in so I could use it as stand alone device without my phone if I wanted.
The app gets good reviews on the iOS store and the developer has provided a ton of supporting tutorials and videos on setting up and using Alexa with the Apple watch on their website voiceinacan.com
I see this app as being a great way to add additional smart home functionality to your Apple watch for the devices that you may love like the Nest Thermostat that aren’t officially supported by HomeKit. Once you start using voice commands to control your home you realize how convenient it is and having an Apple Watch on your wrist to issue voice commands to control your home makes you feel like the King or Queen of your castle.
I use voice commands to turn on and off my lighting ever night and adjust the temperature before I go to bed. There’s nothing better than at the end of a long day telling your Apple watch to turn off the lights so you can go to sleep without needing to get up.
Voice Commands For Alexa On Apple Watch
To use Alexa you can invoke Alexa in two different ways. You can either click on the “Alexa” icon then speak and you don’t need to use the Alexa word. Or you can use the word “Alexa” then say your commands just like you were using a standard Alexa device. So if you wanted to use Alexa to control your Nest Thermostat from your Apple watch you could do so by saying. “Alexa, set thermostat to 72 degrees. The video below shows how you can use the Apple watch with Alexa commands below.
You can use the full lineup of Alexa commands on your Apple watch just like a normal Alexa device but I’ve listed out some popular Alexa commands you can use to control your smart home below.
“Alexa, turn off living room lights.”
“Alexa, lock my front door.”
“Alexa, set my thermostat to air conditioning.”
“Alexa, arm my security system.”
Related Post: 101 Best Alexa Commands
Best HomeKit Devices
Now here’s the thing if you have all HomeKit devices in your smart home you don’t need to use Alexa to control them you can just control them using Siri voice commands directly on your Apple watch.
But the issue with this is some of the most popular smart home devices like the Nest Thermostat aren’t compatible with HomeKit.
That’s why we created our guides on the best devices that work with HomeKit so you can find the right device for your home that will has native HomeKit and Siri integration. With native integration you can just say Siri commands like “Siri, lock my door.” to control your home. Click on any of the links below if you want to learn more.
Best Smart Thermostats That Work With HomeKit
Best Smart Light Switches That Work With Homekit
Best Smart Locks That Work With HomeKit
Best Smart Light Bulbs That Work With HomeKit
Best Smart Smart Plugs That Work With Homekit
Alexa On Apple Watch Summary
For less than the price of coffee you can add a ton of smart home functionality to your Apple watch with the Voice In A Can App. It would be great if Apple directly supported Alexa on the Apple watch but since HomeKit and Alexa are direct competitors to each other that’s not likely to happen anytime soon.
But the developer of the app has created a great fusion of the Apple Watch hardware with the Alexa software to increase the functionality of the Apple Watch across a wide array of smart home devices.
Right now the “Voice In A Can App” seems like the best way to control unsupported HomeKit devices with voice commands on your Apple watch. At first it may seem like that’s a very small niche but when you realize how many more smart home devices are supported by Alexa than HomeKit you’ll realize the value proposition of the app.