Alexa is getting that little bit smarter again - Amazon is activating a feature to let its smart assistant notify you if your smart doorbell detects a person or package outside your front door, making it easier to get alerts through different speakers and systems.

Sadly this isn't a crazy software workaround, in the sense that your doorbell will still need to be able to detect people and packages and distinguish between them, which not all can manage, while Amazon's own Ring devices lock the feature behind a subscription.

The change will mean you can get a notification or alert from any Alexa device, be it your phone or a smart speaker, and you can customise these as you like.

Even more useful, you can set up Alexa routines using the alerts, so that you could have an outdoor light turn on if someone's out the front of your home, or have your front door lock itself if a delivery comes in.

The new ability should be live today for Alexa users, at least for person detection, on all Ring cameras and any cameras that have "Work with Alexa" certification.

Package detection is a little more fiddly and will work on a more limited range of cameras, like the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2.