The switch is about to be flipped on Amazon Sidewalk, the tech giant’s vision of smart neighborhoods connected by an array of its gadgets.
Amazon, which originally announced the networking project in September 2019, plans to make Sidewalk operational on its Echo devices on June 8.
The low-bandwidth shared network uses a smidgen of your home Wi-Fi to connect Echo devices, Ring security cameras and lights, and Tile Bluetooth trackers to help everyone’s devices “get connected and stay connected,” according to a description on the company’s website.
This connectivity across neighborhoods could come in handy when, say, your Echo speaker or Ring camera loses its Wi-Fi connection. When that happens, Sidewalk can more easily reconnect your devices.
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And, as Amazon says in the project description, “Sidewalk can also extend the working range for your Sidewalk-enabled devices, such as Ring smart lights, pet locators or smart locks, so they can stay connected and continue to work over longer distances.”
Amazon doesn’t charge anything for Sidewalk and the company says “multiple layers of encryption” provide privacy and security for your personal data. But Amazon has gotten some flak for automatically opting users in.
You can use the Alexa app to opt out, which is something Shelly Palmer,…
