How to Use Smart Home Scenes

One of the most helpful features of the A3 Smart Home app is being able to use, edit and create scenes. Let's start with defining a scene: a scene is any combination of automation actions, taken simultaneously with a single command. This command can be a tap on your smartphone or saying to your smart speaker, "Hey Siri..." "Ok Google..." or "Alexa ... run the Sleep scene."

Life would be so much simpler if we could be in a few different places, doing a few important things, all at once. Imagine being able to turn lights off, lock doors and set your security system to Armed Stay. With scenes, you can. And it doesn't require a professional to set up. With a few minutes on your app, you can set up processes that make life easier, indefinitely.

Using Your Pre-Made Scenes

Your A3 Smart Home app comes with four pre-made scenes:

• Home

• Sleep

• Stay

• Away

To get to these, open your app and tap Scenes. Tap the name of the scene, then Edit to change any of the actions these scenes take. For example, your Home Scene may disarm your partition (control panel) but not do anything else. By editing the scene, you can add that it also turns on your kitchen light and unlocks the door.

You can also change the icon, name and color of the scene by tapping the scene and Edit in the upper righthand corner.

To move scenes, go to Scenes and then tap the arrow icon in the upper right corner. Drag the scene to your preferred position and tap Done.

Scenes for Your Routines

To set up a scene that suits your life and home, imagine yourself arriving home, getting up, going to bed or leaving for the day. Let's say you're in your car and about to gather groceries, soccer players, ballerinas and a dog. It'd nice to be able to start a scene by opening your app and tapping "Home" or simply by saying, "Hey Siri, run the Home scene." Here are a few examples.

Home

• Disarm your home security system

• Unlock the front door

• Switch on the lights

• Turn the heat to 70°

Wake Up

• Turn on the lights

• Turn the heat up to 72°

Sleep

• Turn off all the lights

• Turn down the heat to 68°

• Set the home security system to "Armed Stay"

Setting up Your Own Scenes

Once you've edited the pre-made scenes in your app, you can create your own. You can find desktop instructions here, or you can open up the A3 Smart Home app on your phone. Tap Scenes and then tap the red plus sign in the upper right corner. Select the icon, name and color you'd like, and add devices by tapping Add+ in the grey divider.

You can add any combination of smart lamps, light switches, locks, thermostat and alarm system modes. Here is one we like.

Movie Night

• Turn the lights off

• Dial the thermostat up slightly

• Set the home security system to "Armed Stay"

Got comments, questions or ideas? Let us know how you've used your A3 Smart Home app to create scenes that make you feel more at home.