Amazon Key will let you grant delivery people access to your home from afar

We have all heard about a delivered package getting stolen while sitting in front of a door, and Amazon wants to make that a thing of the past.

Announced today, Amazon Key is a new service that will allow delivery drivers to actually enter a recipient’s home and drop off a package on the other side of the door. The service is part of an in-home delivery option for Amazon Prime customers that also have Amazon Key.

To make it work, a lot of things have to come together. Amazon is including an Amazon Cloud Cam which will let owners quickly see who is delivering a package at their front door. The delivery driver will have to confirm their location as they request access to a home, and then Amazon will use an encrypted authentication process to make sure the driver is at the right location. Once that’s done, the Amazon Cloud Cam will begin recording once the door is unlocked, letting owners watch live as the driver drops off the package or watch a recording of the action at a later date.

The scope is beyond just deliveries, though. Amazon Key will let you confirm or deny people into your home while you aren’t present, and owners will be able to add or remove contacts as they see fit. Owners can also set the frequency and length that a guest is allowed to enter a home. Finally, Amazon Key will eventually support services like Merry Maids and the Rover.com dog walking service.

Amazon Key is available to pre-order right now for $249.99 and it goes on sale November 8. For the price tag you get a smart lock from Kwikset or Yale and the aforementioned Amazon Cloud Cam. The Amazon Key service will be available in these cities at launch:

• Atlanta, GA
• Austin, TX
• Baltimore, MD
• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Cincinnati, OH
• Cleveland, OH
• Dallas, TX
• Denver, CO
• Detroit, MI
• Houston, TX
• Indianapolis, IN
• Jacksonville, FL
• Kansas City, KS
• Los Angeles and Orange County, CA
• Louisville, KY
• Miami, FL
• Milwaukee, WI
• Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN
• Nashville, TN
• Newark, NJ
• Orlando, FL
• Philadelphia, PA
• Phoenix, AZ
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Portland, OR
• Richmond, VA
• Sacramento, CA
• Salt Lake City, UT
• San Antonio, TX
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco Bay area, CA
• Sarasota, FL
• Seattle and Eastside, WA
• St. Louis, MO
• Tampa, FL
• Washington, DC metro area

There will be a standard Amazon Key app which will let owners control the smart lock and camera and allow people access to their residence. If you just want the Amazon Cloud Cam, that will retail for $119.99 and it, too, will go on sale on November 8.

There will also be subscription options for the Cloud Cam, which include advanced features like Person Detection (this ignores movement from animals), as well as Zones, which will let you designated which parts of the home you don’t want monitored for movement:

• Basic ($6.99/mo, $69/yr) offers access to the last 7 days of motion detection clips for up to 3 cameras
• Extended ($9.99/mo, $99/yr) offers access to the last 14 days of motion detection clips for up to 5 cameras
• Pro ($19.99/mo, $199/yr) offers access to the last 30 days of motion detection clips for up to 10 cameras

What do you think of Amazon Key?

Sources: Amazon Key, Amazon Cloud Cam

source: androidandme