Amazon is looking to make your life easier with Alexa Hunches.

The Hunches feature allows Alexa to act on a hunch and complete tasks not because you explicitly ordered the assistant to do so but because it felt it was the right thing to do.

Let's take a closer look at the feature and how you can use it in your smart home.

What Are Alexa Hunches?

The Alexa Hunches feature allows Amazon Alexa to act on a hunch and help ease your life by doing tasks for you without waiting for another command. The voice assistant already has the ability to read between the lines of your requests, but this is a step up from that.

For example, if you say "Good night," but Alexa spots that there is still a light on in the house, it can turn it off for you. Before taking any action, it will ask if you want to have that light turned off, and only if you say yes, will it proceed.

Anytime the virtual assistant notices that any of your smart home devices aren't acting correctly or not in the expected state, Alexa will alert you. It reaches you via voice or mobile push notification, and you can direct it on how to proceed further.

Amazon Alexa can have hunches related to all the smart devices in your home, like thermostats, locks, lights, switches, and more.

Related: The Best Amazon Alexa-Compatible Gadgets You Can Buy

Alexa managing smart devicess

After observing your habits and requests, the virtual assistant gets hunches about what it can do to save you the trouble of doing it yourself or having to make an explicit request to have it done. It's as simple as the name suggests.

If you want to receive mobile notifications for Alexa Hunches (or disable them), you can do so with the Amazon Alexa app. The app is available for download for iOS and Android.

Once you've got it, follow these steps:

  • Open the Alexa app
  • Open More and select Settings
  • Select Hunches
  • Turn Mobile notification for Hunches on or off

How Do Alexa Hunches Work?

Amazon says that Alexa Hunches are enabled by default. But that doesn't mean that the assistant will go about your house and do whatever it wants on a hunch.

With the feature enabled, Alexa won't act on anything before asking you for permission first. Before it acts, it will ask for permission. It will only do the action if you confirm.

Alexa Hunches asks permission

If you want to avoid getting asked for permission before Alexa acts on its hunches, you have to enable automatic actions. That's something you can do in the Alexa app.

How Do You Activate Alexa Hunches?

How to turn Hunches on or off using the Alexa app:

  • Open the Alexa app
  • Open More and select Settings
  • Scroll down and select Hunches
  • Select Settings
  • Under Suggestions, turn on or off hunch notifications

If you want to enable Amazon Alexa to automatically act on its hunches, you can follow these steps:

  • Open the Alexa app
  • Open More and select Settings
  • Scroll down and select Hunches
  • Select Set up automatic actions
  • Select the hunches you want Alexa to act on (example: Alexa can turn off lights when you're asleep)

How Do You Deactivate Alexa Hunches?

To turn the feature off, you have to use the Alexa app again. Follow the steps below:

  • Open the Alexa app
  • Open More and then select Settings
  • Scroll down and select Hunches
  • Deactivate Hunches

You can also turn off the feature with a voice command. Simply say "Alexa, enable/disable Hunches."

How Are Hunches Helpful?

Alexa doesn't only have hunches about forgotten lights. That tends to seem inconsequential, even though it will still cut down your energy bill. It can also have hunches on more significant things that can affect your life much more—like, forgetting to lock your door.

Related: What Is Alexa and What Does Alexa Do?

People usually lock the door after returning from work or from taking their dog on a nightly walk. It tends to happen at roughly the same time every day. But what if you get distracted and forget to do it? That's where Alexa kicks in and saves the day. If you forget to do certain things, the voice assistant will step in.

For the smart assistant to get a hunch, it first has to take notice of your patterns and habits. It uses the patterns from your usage history, like the commands you tend to send and what state your smart devices are usually in.

The assistant then uses the patterns in that data and determines that you do certain things daily, nightly, weekly, etc. Like locking the door every day or turning the lights off and the thermostat down before you say good night.

Alexa Hunches catching pattern deviations

If that pattern deviates in any way, Alexa speaks up to let you know and asks if you want it to correct it. Going on the unlocked door example, it will say that the door is unlocked and ask if you want it to lock it for you.

If you've enabled automatic hunches, then Alexa locks it as soon as it realizes that it's unlocked, and you'll be none the wiser.

Thanks to Alexa Hunches, you can save yourself a lot of trouble. Like waking up in the middle of the night because you're too hot or having to deal with potential burglars.

Amazon Alexa can also have Hunches that are unrelated to home automation and routines. For example, if you ask the assistant at exactly what time sunset will happen tomorrow, it might follow up with a question on its own that's the inverse of what you asked. It's likely to ask if you want to know when the sunrise will be, as well.

There are also simple voice commands you can use that Amazon Alexa supports concerning its Hunches function. Apart from the enable/disable voice command, there's also "Alexa, do I have any Hunches?" It will then proceed to list everything it noticed that seems off with the state of your smart devices. And, if you haven't enabled it to act automatically, you can direct it to what to do.

Alexa Hunches notifications

Is This the Future of Voice Assistants?

We've all seen futuristic movies that display the use of impressive smart home assistants. Technology that instinctively knows what to do and when to do it. The assistants turn lights on and off, cook food to perfection, adjust the temperature, open and close blinds, and know what you expect done without saying a thing.

Hunches provide a glimpse into a future where smart home assistants take over home tasks intuitively. And wouldn't it be great to know that your home is well taken care of, in the hands of your smart assistant, without worrying that you'll forget to do certain tasks? It's so much easier if Amazon Alexa knows to turn the thermostat up instinctively instead of waiting for a command and you having to shiver in the cold.

It's an exciting time and seeing how Amazon keeps improving Alexa, and we're looking forward to seeing what other innovations it will bring. One of the best features of Alexa that you can take advantage of now is the huge library of different skills that build on the virtual assistant.