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August suggests unlocking its voice-controlled lock when you're chopping onions and expecting guests

August suggests unlocking its voice-controlled lock when you're chopping onions and expecting guests

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August

August announced today that its smart lock can now be locked and unlocked through Alexa-enabled devices. This is legitimately practical and good for people who are immobile, but August doesn’t focus on that. No, instead, August wants us to remember that this feature might work best for people who are too busy chopping onions to answer the door for their visitors. What the heck! That’s so rude.

Someone else on the Verge staff informed me that this might also be good for people with three-story homes, which, sure. As a highly neurotic person, I could see voice lock being useful for when I’m lying in bed worrying that I forgot to lock my door. This happens frequently.

Now, obviously, there’s a risk involved with anyone being able to tell Alexa to unlock a door, so to avoid that, each lock requires a user-created voice PIN to issue a command. Each pin has to be between four and 12 digits, and it’s set up during the account linking process. Smart lock owners will also have to connect their lock to the internet through either the August Connect Wi-Fi Bridge or August Doorbell Cam.