How To: Setup Light Groups with Amazon Alexa

Control multiple lights with one voice command with Alexa!

Group light bulbs in one lamp or group all the lights in a room. The smart home groups feature in the Alexa App is perfect for making your voice lighting control even better.

Use this guide to easily create your Alexa light group. 

In short, confusing smart light names. Do you have several smart light bulbs with names such as this?

• Family Room Light 1, Family Room Light 2, Family Room Light 3
• Lamp 1, Lamp 2
• Right Side Lamp, Left Side Lamp
• Susan's Lamp, Jason's Lamp

These names make perfect sense to identify and group the lights together. However, these names are horrible for controlling the lights by voice with your Amazon Echo. Most of the time, you want to control the group of lights instead of each light individually. That is exactly why you need to create light groups in the Alexa app.

You can easily combine lights such as 'Lamp 1' and 'Lamp 2' into a group called 'Lamps' to control both lights with one voice command.

You can easily combine lights such as 'Lamp 1' and 'Lamp 2' into a group called 'Lamps' to control both lights with one voice command. Once you create the group, you can turn the lights on or off, set the dim level, or change the color of the entire group of lights. 

This is a simple project that only requires two products:

2. Smart light switch or smart light bulbs

If you have an Amazon Echo device but not the lights, then I suggest that you check out the Philips Hue Hub. Voice control over your lights is one of the greatest conveniences of your smart home. The Philips Hue product line contains multiple size light bulbs that you can quickly set up and control with your voice. I use these products and I recommend them for your smart home too.

Once you have your Hue and Alexa products setup and connected, you are ready to create and control your Alexa light group.

Let's get started and create a light group in the Amazon Alexa App!

Now that the group is created, you can control the group of lights with the same voice commands as any individual light. 

There are three primary ways I use Alexa light groups in my home. 

1. Light Pairs - For example, lamps on the left and right side of the bed. Lamps on each side of the couch. Recessed lights that are specific to an area such as over the fireplace.
2. Lights with Multiple Bulbs - For example, lamps or ceiling lights that contain multiple light bulbs. If you use smart bulbs then you will want to create a group for them.
3. Rooms or Locations - All the lights in a certain room or location. For example, all the lights outside.

The common theme is that these are lights you want to control in a group. You always have the option to control each light or light bulb individually, but in most cases you will want to control the devices together.

The Amazon Echo devices give you a lot of options to control your smart home lights with your voice. Here are some other guides on controlling lights by voice with Alexa:

1. Create Context Aware Lights - Just say "turn on lights" and Alexa knows which lights you want to turn on (THIS IS A MUST).
2. Create Custom Routines - Your own custom voice commands to control lights with Alexa routines.

P.S. Please leave a comment below to ask a question, help someone else or share your experiences. Thanks!