Amazon Sidewalk now open for developer testing: All you need to know

Amazon is inviting developers to test Sidewalk, a low-cost, long-range and low-power shared community network designed to help IoT devices work better, and experience its performance firsthand.

Sidewalk is currently only available in the US. Developers can request free Amazon Sidewalk Test Kit to validate estimated coverage in a desired area, as well as test out the breadth of the network in different everyday scenarios. 

The newly-released Amazon Sidewalk public coverage maps showcase estimated coverage for any U.S. location, enabling developers to understand if their devices will connect in a desired location before starting product development.

According to Amazon, the Sidewalk Test Kit regularly pings its location over the network, providing signal strength readings for its location viewable against the coverage map on a private website.

"Many types of connected devices have been limited by the range of Wi-Fi and the cost of cellular technology, which has hindered the ability to connect devices like environmental sensors, leak detectors, and smart locks. Sidewalk is designed to provide a secure, low-cost way to invent and connect a whole new range of devices, and we can’t wait to see what developers build," said Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices & Services.

Sidewalk is natively integrated with AWS IoT Core, which allows developers to easily access the AWS services and resources needed to efficiently connect their devices to the cloud.

New Sidewalk-enabled devices from Netvox, OnAsset and Primax will also be available later this year, Amazon said in a statement on Tuesday.