- Amazon offers a smart home control center on the Fire Tablet PC dashboard.
- You can control the lights, plugs and switches in one place.
- It extends to 2018 and the latest Fire Tablet.
Amazon Fire tablets are now more useful than regular TV shows, books, and gaming – they also serve as controllers for your Alexa-powered devices. ZDNet Amazon unveils a smart home section of the dashboard that turns it into a Fire Tablet Control Center.
Press the Smart Home button in the navigation bar (bottom left) and you’ll see quick controls that allow you to quickly toggle or access individual devices such as cameras, lights and thermostats. You have toggles that control every device in a given category – for example you can turn off all your switches at night.
See also: The best smart home accessories you can buy
You will need a relatively recent tablet to use the Smart Home Center at least initially. Amazon is now deploying it for the 2018 edition Fire HD 8, 2019 Fire 7, 2019 Fire HD 10 and 2020 Fire HD 8 models.
This is somehow outdated. Amazon has an extensive ecosystem of smart home gadgets ranging from smart plugs to ring cameras, and it’s no surprise that the Fire Tablet already doesn’t have a central place to control it all. Third-party Alexa hardware has been on the market for many years.
Even so, if you have invested deep in Amazon hardware there is no doubt that this is a welcome update. You now have an easy way to manage your smart home from a Fire tablet without having to resort to individual applications or Alexa or voice commands. This is especially helpful if you want to manage multiple devices at once or if you do not want to wake up a sleeping partner to activate the light in the hall.
