Is It Possible To Connect YI Cameras To Alexa?

Alexa voice assistant was developed by Amazon and it’s one of the most common virtual assistants in the smart home industry, people rely on it to manage their connected devices such as doorbells, cameras, door locks, lights, robot vacuums, and more.

YI cameras are compatible with Alexa and users use this combination to control their cameras by voice using a smartphone, tablet, or Echo smart speakers or they rely on the Echo Show display to watch the live view and recorded events.

So in the next chapters of this blog post, we’re gonna see how to connect YI cameras to Alexa and what are the voice commands that you can use in order to manage your gadget.

How to connect the YI camera to Alexa?

In this section, we will walk you through the steps that you need to perform in order to integrate the YI camera and Alexa. Put in mind that you need an Alexa account and your camera need to be already set up in the YI Home app.

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Tap on the hamburger menu at the top left corner of the screen.
3. Tap on skills & games and search for YI Home.
4. Tap on Enable To Use and connect to your YI account using your credentials.
5. A screen will appear telling you that your account has been successfully linked.
6. Tap Add device and select other.
7. Then click Discover Devices on the new page or say “Alexa, discover devices”.
8. Go to Device to take control of your YI cams that were discovered by Alexa.

YI cameras have the ability to detect motion and sound and they use AI detection to distinguish between persons, vehicles, pets and some models like “YI Dome U Camera” have facial detection capability.

So whenever your camera detects something, it alerts you on your phone, but if you want to be alerted via your voice assistant, you need to turn off do not disturb mode, and here’s how:

1. Open the Alexa app on your phone.
2. Go to Devices, then choose “Echo & Alexa”.
3. Select your device.
4. Then tap on “Do Not Disturb”.
5. Turn Do Not Disturb off.

YI camera & Alexa commands.

As we know, to control any gadget with Alexa, you need to know what voice commands to use, and here are some commands to memorize:

1. “Alexa, show me [camera name]”: Use this command to start streaming a camera live from your supported screened Alexa device.
2. “Alexa, hide [camera name]”: to stop and return to your supported screened Alexa device home screen.

Change YI camera name on Alexa.

If you have more than one camera integrated and controlled by Alexa you need to give each camera a special name in order to avoid confusion, and make sure to use simple names avoiding numbers and characters to make it easier to pronounce and for Alexa to hear.

Note: Use names such as “living room camera” or “bedroom camera”.

Here’s how to change the device name on Alexa:

1. Go to the Alexa app.
2. Tap on Devices at the bottom right of the screen.
3. Select Cameras on the top of the screen.
4. Then select the YI cam you want to edit.
5. Tap the gear icon at the top right corner of the screen.
6. Tap Edit Name and rename your camera.

Important: Changing the camera name on the YI Home app will require you to discover the device again.

In Summary.

Integrating the Alexa voice assistant to your YI cameras is a perfect idea as it will allow you to take control and access the live stream with a simple voice command, which is ideal for people who have difficulty managing the mobile application.