Connecting your robot vacuum to Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant levels up your hands-free cleaning experience. Once set up, you won’t need to open an app on your smartphone or push a button on the bot to get the cleaning party started. With a voice assistant on tap, just say a command, and your bot will do.
Most robot vacuum manufacturers work with Alexa for voice control, although some have more features than others. The basics generally include start, stop, pause, and dock (or go home). But the premium experience includes specific room cleaning commands — so, for example, you can ask Alexa to tell your robot to clean the kitchen and the living room. This is only available on vacuums with the ability to map your home, such as the Roborock S7.
Connect your robot vacuum to Amazon’s Alexa
No matter which robot vacuum you have, the experience of connecting it to Alexa so you can control it with the voice assistant is similar.
Some manufacturers, such as Roborock, iRobot, Eufy, and Ecovacs, have made it possible to start the pairing with Alexa from their apps, streamlining the process during your initial setup of the vacuum. If that’s the case, go to your user profile in your robot’s app, select theVoice Control, Smart Home, orSmart Integrations option, chooseConnect to Amazon Alexaand follow the steps above from theDiscover Devicespoint.
Alexa voice commands you can use with your robot vacuum
Once your robot vacuum is connected to Alexa, common commands for operating it with voice include (check with the manufacturer of your vacuum for exact wording):
Depending on which robot vacuum you use, there may be other commands available. These will be displayed when you link it to Alexa. (Pro tip: screenshot this page so you can reference it until you’re used to the phrases.)
When you use voice to control your robot vacuum with Alexa, some robots may open their own voice skill and ask for additional guidance. For example, if you have more than one Roomba vacuum in your home, you will get a prompt that opens the iRobot skill and asks you to select a number to choose the correct robot — for example, “For Roomba s9, say 1; for Roomba i7, say 2.” If you have a Brava Jet mopping robot, it may also ask if you want that robot to clean once the vacuum is done. You can skip this by using this phrase to pick the correct robot initially: “Alexa, ask Roomba to have [name of vacuum] start cleaning”
Robots with mapping capabilities may have the option to follow a command to clean a specific room or area. These commands include:
Some other options your robot might have include the ability to make announcements on an Echo device when it needs attention. This lets your robot tell you what it’s doing through Alexa, announcing things like when it needs help or when it has finished a cleaning job. You can turn this feature on or off and choose which Echo devices make the announcements in the settings section for the robot in the Alexa app.
Control your robot vacuum with Alexa Routines and Hunches
Many robot vacuums work with Alexa Hunches and Routines so that your robot can operate based on actions you take (leaving the house) or actions in your smart home (dismissing an alarm on an Echo device or when motion is or isn’t detected by a motion sensor).
To set up a Routine involving your robot vacuum:
Alexa Hunches is a feature that lets the artificially intelligent assistant make decisions about what you might need your smart home to do for you, based on your habits and routines. For example, it can use connected devices in your home — such as lights, thermostats, locks, switches, and plugs — to figure out if you are away and tell your vacuum to clean when you’ve left. Robots that currently work with Hunches include those from iRobot, Eufy, Wyze, Roborock, and Ecovacs.
To enable robot vacuum Hunches:
You can change the settings for the Hunch at any time directly from your robot’s page in the Alexa app.
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