The new Alexa for Residential program from Amazon

 

Amazon's smart speakers will be usable without any set up for new renters once they move in, and 

these devices can be used for self-guided tours for prospective renters, providing general information

 like square footage and monthly rent. Tenants will be able to link their Amazon accounts so they can

 use all of Alexa's features, such as calling friends or playing your Spotify. Once a renter moves out, 

property managers will be able to reset these speakers while keeping the connections to smart-home 

features in place.

 

Amazon has brought Alexa to homes, hotels and college dorms. It's next stop is apartment rentals.

On Thursday, the online retailer revealed its new Alexa for Residential program, which will make it 

easier for landlords and property managers to add dozens of Amazon's voice assistant and Alexa-

powered smart home devices into their rental units.

"The resident has to do zero setup," said Liron Torres, Amazon Alexa's head of smart properties. "From

 the moment they walk in, they can use Alexa and smart-home devices."

The new program adds to Amazon's work to make its voice assistant a default for many places, almost

 like a utility such as the lights or plumbing. The homebuilder Lennar in 2018 said it was adding Alexa 

and smart locks into all its new builds. Amazon has also put together partnerships to bring Alexa to 

hotel rooms and college dorms. It also introduced plans to bring Alexa into office settings but hasn't 

offered more details on those efforts.

This work should help Amazon make Alexa a must-have for more people and prevent rivals like 

Google Assistant and Apple siri from stealing away its customers.

While smart-home devices have become enormously popular for millions of people, adding them into 

rental properties can create problems. For example, a judge last year ordered landlords of a New York 

apartment building to hand over physical keys to tenants who don't want to use the Latch smart locks 

installed in the building.

Amazon said privacy is an important element of the new program, saying property managers and their 

smart-home partners can't access any customer data. As defaults, voice recordings are automatically 

deleted daily and those recordings won't be accessible to Alexa's human reviewers. Renters who link 

their accounts will have full access to Alexa's privacy controls. They can unlink their accounts 

whenever they want.