How to use Alexa and FireTV to view your Kasa Smart camera’s video stream

Our Kasa Smart product line, including our Kasa cameras, is set up exclusively through the Kasa app. This app is also where you can view the live video stream of your configured Kasa cameras. For those users who have not yet set up their camera in Kasa, here is an article that shows how: link

Although the Kasa App is the only way to control your Kasa device, you can also access the live stream that does not involve the use of your smartphone or the app. This feature uses Alexa to tap into the live video and stream to the following Amazon devices such as the Echo Show, Echo Spot, and even a Fire TV streaming device.

However, you are not going to be able to walk up to your Alexa device right after set up and view the stream. Alexa needs to be given access to your Kasa account to be able to access the stream, which is done by enabling the Kasa skill.

Here is an article that will show you how to enable that skill: link

So now you are at a point where the camera works on your Kasa app, you have the skill enabled on Alexa, what do you do now to view the stream on your Alexa or Fire TV device?

Before we get to the commands one important item to note is that the commands to turn the camera on or off do not work. This is to avoid an unauthorized guest or someone who should not be in the home from turning off the camera with a voice command.

If you just have a single Alexa device, you can tap into the live stream with the following command:

“Alexa, show <camera name>”

After several seconds the video will populate like shown below. The beginning of the video starts with me in the Alexa menu of the Firestick, but you can be in any menu or application. For instance, you can be watching a video on Netflix and then tap into the video if you wanted:

If you have multiple Alexa devices within your home that are capable of streaming video, it is important to designate each Alexa video streaming device when issuing a voice command to display the camera’s live view. In the example below, I have two Firestick TV’s. If I try to just use the command above without including the specific device, I want to stream the live view to, it might not work, or to the wrong TV. To remedy this, it is important to indicate the specific name of the Firestick that is attached to the TV I want to stream the live video too. In this example, my camera is called “cam”.

So, I would say:

“Alexa, show cam on Tony’s Fire TV”

To locate the name of my Fire TV, I first navigated to settings (gear icon):

 

Then, select “My Fire TV”:

 

Select “About”:

 

The first menu that displays will show the name of the Firestick TV to the right of the screen:

 

 

To stop streaming there are various commands you can use, such as the ones listed below:

“Alexa, hide <camera name>”

“Alexa, go home”

“Alexa, stop”

Once you have issued one of the above commands to stop streaming, your Fire TV should automatically return to the previous app or menu you were using. For example, if you were using video streaming apps such as Hulu or Netflix, or Prime Video, you should be taken back to the video you were watching, but at the info page since the video will be paused. One app I found where the video will automatically resume where it left off was YouTube in this experiment.