Amazon Key is going nationwide.
Amazon said it has expanded the reach of the app — which works with smart locks and an in-house security camera to allow the company to let people into homes — to all customers across the U.S. In-home package delivery, one of the primary uses of Amazon Key, will, for now at least, remain restricted to select markets.
In addition to the national expansion, Amazon has added some new features and compatible smart locks. With this update, customers can watch clips of people entering and exiting their home when the lock is activated.
With five new smart locks from Kwikset and Yale, a bundle including the 1080p HD camera Amazon Cloud Cam and a lock starts at $169.99 and ranges up to $259.99. The Cloud Cam itself costs $139.99 and the locks range from $149.99 to $249.99.
Amazon Key and the Cloud Cam debuted last year with a goal of making it easier for customers to give house cleaners, dog walkers, package delivery companies and other service providers access to their homes. Cloud Cam can be used with subscription plans for extended storage and other extra features, ranging from $6.99 to $19.99 a month, or a free plan offering 24 hours of cloud storage.
Amazon has made several updates to the devices since they debuted. In November, Amazon targeted some of the most obvious challenges encountered by early Cloud Cam users as documented in the customer reviews for the device on Amazon.com. That update let users disable audio recording from the camera; turn the night vision LEDs on and off via the app; and flip the orientation of the Cloud Cam live view if it’s upside down, when installed on a ceiling, for example.
Last month, Amazon added the ability to turn on the camera via voice command with Alexa, get motion detection alerts through Echo devices and enable two-way audio to talk through the camera using an Echo Show or Echo Spot. Amazon also created a website where users can follow their live feeds from their desktops at work.
